Outside Iraq but Deep in the Fight

[drdon326]

A Smuggler of Insurgents Reveals Syria's Influential, Changing Role

When the Americans led the invasion of Iraq, the men of Abu Ibrahim's family gathered in the courtyard of their shared home in the far north of Syria. Ten slips of paper were folded into a plastic bag, and they drew lots. The five who opened a paper marked with ink would go to Iraq and fight. The other five would stay behind.

Abu Ibrahim drew a blank. But remaining in Syria did not mean staying clear of the war. For more than two years, by his own detailed account, the slightly built, shabbily dressed 32-year-old father of four has worked diligently to shuttle other young Arab men into Iraq, stocking the insurgency that has killed hundreds of U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis.

The stream of fighters -- most of them Syrians, but lately many of them Saudis, favored for the cash they bring -- has sustained and replenished the hardest core of the Iraq insurgency, and supplied many of its suicide bombers. Drawn from a number of Arab countries and nurtured by a militant interpretation of Islam, they insist they are fighting for their vision of their faith. This may put them beyond the reach of political efforts to make Iraq's Sunni Arabs stakeholders in the country's nascent government.

Abu Ibrahim recalled: "Our brothers in Iraq worked in small groups. In each area, men would come together, organized by religious leaders or tribal sheiks, and would attack the Americans. It was often us who brought them all together, when we met them in Syria or Iraq. We would tell them, 'But there is another brother who is doing the same thing. Why don't you coordinate together?' Syria became the hub."

Syria's role in sustaining and organizing the insurgency has shifted over time. In the first days of the war, fighters swarmed into Iraq aboard buses that Syrian border guards waved through open gates, witnesses recalled. But late in 2004, after intense pressure on Damascus from the Bush administration, Syrian domestic intelligence services swept up scores of insurgent facilitators. Many, including Abu Ibrahim, were quietly released a few days later.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060702026.html

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fascinating article

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Like I said yesterday...

The location of the currently illuminated fighting is an opportunity for nice little OOOPS! bombing just over the border. It was funny last night when Jon Stewart coined it 'Operation While You're There'. :rofl:

[drdon326]

2. Thanks...I wasnt sure anyone would read it. n/t

[denverbill]

3. Good article.

Interesting that it isn't so much that the Syrian govt supports the insurgents. I always tend to lump the Baathists in with the radical Islamists, but obviously, the radical Islamists have no love at all for the Baathists either or vice versa. The only reason the Baathists tolerate them is their common enemies.

This is pretty depressing too. It sounds to me like it's almost inevitable that the only govt acceptable to most people in the ME is a fundamentalist regime, which is exactly what we don't want.