Who is the US Fighting in Iraq?

[ProSense]

Monday, August 27, 2007

Who is the US Fighting in Iraq?

Who exactly is the US fighting in Iraq? Graphed by self-confessed identity of captives, it is largely Sunni Arab Iraqis, often motivated primarily by the opportunity to earn some money from the resistance leaders.



Source: New York Times, 2007/08/25.

The second largest group is Salafi Takfiris, i.e. fundamentalists who do not consider Shiites to be Muslims and who believe they may be harmed with impunity. The third group is Shiite militiamen (how many of these are non-ideological paid employees is not specified). Self-identified al-Qaeda are only 1800 of the 24000 in captivity, about 7 percent. Foreign fighters at 280 are about 1.1 percent. While it could be argued that it would take bold captives to declare themselves al-Qaeda, there would be no downside to telling the Americans one was a takfiri. There is no reason to think the over 11,000 unspecified Sunni Arabs is fundamentalists. Opinion polling still shows a majority of Sunnis favoring the separation of religion and state.

The odd tendency of the US military and press to refer to all guerrillas in Iraq as "al-Qaeda" is obviously not justified by their own subsequent interrogations of captured suspects. Readers should write and complain when they see al-Qaeda used indiscriminately to describe Sunni Arab fighters.

And when you hear Cheney say we have to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq, you will know that most of the people the US is fighting there are no such thing.

[TwilightGardener]

1. Why, we are fighting "The Enemy". You don't need to know or understand

who that is, just accept it, you silly!

[Lasher]

2. And with all hype about Iran's interference...

we should remind ourselves that Saudi Arabia is mostly Sunni, while Iran is mostly Shia. Wouldn't you think it likely that the Saudis are more involved than Iran? But then President Cheney doesn't want to attack the Saudis just yet.

[izzie]

3. I think it is a flip the coin when you leave the base in the morning.

I have not figured it our for the last 3 years. Once we got Saddam I figured it was time to leave not that I thought we should be their at all.

[Lasher]

4. I remember seeing statistics like this about a year ago, Izzie.

The part that impressed me most back then was that there are very few foreign fighters in Iraq. When you hear all the talk about al Qaida, however, you're supposed to think, "They musta come in from Tora Bora or somewhere, so the flypaper is working." In reality it is us against Iraqis, but mostly Iraqis against Iraqis.

[Lasher]

5. Estimated total number of foreign fighters in Iraq: 800 to 2,000

“(Foreign fighters) are very few in number, although as far as we can tell, they constitute about 100 percent of the suicide bombers.” -- DoD News Briefing with Col. Sean MacFarland, Commander of 1st
Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Stationed in Ramadi, July 14, 2006.

Nationalities of foreign militants in Iraq:

Algeria, 600, 20%
Syria, 550, 18%
Yemen, 500, 17%
Sudan, 450, 15%
Egypt, 400, 13%
Saudi Arabia, 350, 12%
Other Countries, 150, 5%

The Brookings Institution Iraq Index - Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq Scroll down to page 27, PDF required

This is a very good source of overall information on how things are going in Iraq. It might come in handy when we get the 'success in Iraq' emails that we'll start seeing soon from right wingers.

[ProSense]

6. Thanks for the info. n/t

[Babsbrain]

7. MG Rick Lynch recently divulged who we were fighting in Iraq

`snip`

"I want to talk about the enemy. Remember, I talked about before, the enemy here is really three sets: It's Sunni extremists, it's Shi'a extremists and it's Iranian influence. I want to emphasize the Iranian influence piece as part of this briefing."

`snip`

The full transcript is here:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4028


And I sincerely doubt the Irania influence.

[DemReadingDU]

8. Fighting different groups of people, but there is no army

There are no regiments and divisions. There is no chain of command in Iraq. How are we going to know when we win? Who will sign the surrender agreement?

[Lasher]

9. You can never win when you have no real objective.

That's why an objective is the most important part of military strategy.

[ProSense]

10. Bush to say Iraq is front line against Iran, Al-Qaeda

Bush to say Iraq is front line against Iran, Al-Qaeda

Bush lies!

[Harper_is_Bush]

11. For the MILLIONTH time it's TERRA TERRA TERRA!!!!

!!