Insurgents Are Mostly Iraqis, U.S. Military Says

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040928/ts_latimes/insurgentsaremostlyiraqisusmilitarysays&cid=2026&ncid=1480

<snip>

WASHINGTON — The insistence by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and many U.S. officials that foreign fighters are streaming into Iraq (news - web sites) to battle American troops runs counter to the U.S. military's own assessment that the Iraqi insurgency remains primarily a home-grown problem.


<snip>
But according to top U.S. military officers in Iraq, the threat posed by foreign fighters is far less significant than American and Iraqi politicians portray. Instead, commanders said, loyalists of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime — who have swelled their ranks in recent months as ordinary Iraqis bristle at the U.S. military presence in Iraq — represent the far greater threat to the country's fragile 3-month-old government.


Foreign militants such as Jordanian-born Abu Musab Zarqawi are believed responsible for carrying out videotaped beheadings, suicide car bombings and other high-profile attacks. But U.S. military officials said Iraqi officials tended to exaggerate the number of foreign fighters in Iraq to obscure the fact that large numbers of their countrymen have taken up arms against U.S. troops and the American-backed interim Iraqi government.


"They say these guys are flowing across and fomenting all this violence. We don't think so," said a senior military official in Baghdad. "What's the main threat? It's internal."

....please rate this up there!

[saigon68]

1. I guess the locals don't like their "Liberators"

Or for that matter "The Puppets", that "The Liberators" have installed.

[leftchick]

2. yeah, this kinda ruins the whole "terrorist" meme they push...

it is "resistance vs occupiers"... pretty damn simple and unwinable!

[0007]

7. General John Abizaid said on MTP Sunday that there are only

1000 foreign terrorist in Iraq. While Allawi said during the press conference with junior on Thursday that the terrorist were pouring in from other countries.

junior sez we must fight the terrorist over there instead of here! And what's strange that has become the mantra of the right wing nut.

Again connecting al Qaeda with Saddam Hussein.

Abizaid and Allawi and junior are all out of step, 'eh?

[Jacobin]

3. Just a few "dead enders, baathists and criminals" doncha know

I thought that's what rock star Donald 'I do quagmires' Rumsfeld said.

Can he not be trusted?

:eyes:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Rumsfeld signed off on the torture memo... he cannot be trusted, the fact

that he is still employed by the American people is a testament to the wickedness that has infiltrated our government. I am more apt to believe the majority of the rest of the world, than I am to believe a few people who have managed go worm their way into various levels of our government. We need a good cleaning out and I hope it starts on November 4th... and no, I am not talking about laxatives here.

[izzie]

5. Reporters say it is the people of Iraq

Scott Taylor for one.

[jackofhearts]

6. Seems to me one would have to

question allawi's credibility on this. But that is not the patriotic thing to do...I saw our president say that on TV.

[bif]

8. Bull. Anyone hear the Canadian reporter on NPR this morning?

He said they were well organzed and from all over the Mid-East.

[gratuitous]

D'oh!

Double-clicked by mistake.

[gratuitous]

9. I'd be willing to bet

That no one really knows just how many folks have entered Iraq to stir up trouble. And the conflicting statements by the administration, the military, and the putative leaders of Iraq sort of bears that to a fare-thee-well.

The question is, why doesn't anyone have a handle on this? Is the mission perhaps not quiet accomplished? Does Iraq perhaps not enjoy full sovereignty?

Oh, for the days of a professional Fourth Estate!

[Nihil]

10. Guess that it was his turn to collect the CentCom bonus today!

I wish they'd be honest and call them "rebels" or "patriots"
but I suppose that would be too close to the truth ...