How many of those jihadists flypapering into Iraq are new recruits, fighting because we are there?
Good question, but who knows?... but it's very convenient for al-Q that we are there, whether the excited assembling jihadists are veterans or hot-headed bandwagon types. And it's quite inconvenient for us. To quote a Dowd characterization of the situation posted earlier (and if there's anything below someone thinks is inaccurate, I'd be more than happy to read why they think so):
"Our exhausted and frustrated soldiers are in a hideously difficult environment they're not familiar with, dealing with a culture America only dimly understands, where our desperation for any intelligence has reduced us to recruiting Saddam's old spies, whom we didn't trust in the first place...
We don't know exactly which of our ghostly Arab enemies are which, how many there are, who's plotting with whom, what weapons they have, how they're getting into Iraq, where they're hiding, or who's financing and organizing them.
And we certainly don't understand the violent internecine religious battles we've set in motion...
...Just because the unholy alliance of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters and Islamic terrorists has turned Iraq into a scary shooting gallery for our troops doesn't mean Americans at home are any safer. Since when did terrorists see terror as an either-or proposition?..." |
