Hawk, I don't know much about the many flavours of Islamic Jihad. There are something like a billion Moslems and I suppose something like 1% would fit into the Islamic Jihad category in some form or another, active, inactive, wannabe, supporter.
My guess is that there are lots more than 1000 AlQ or equivalent in Iraq. There must be 100,000 or so who identify with Islamic Jihad ideas.
<they need to stop this bickering and think about their combined national interests and not their religious and tribal differences.>
Look what Saddam did with the money. He built many palaces for himself and paid legions of troops to provide security for himself. It's all about personal ego and self-aggrandizement.
There doesn't seem to be a community mindset, so oil wealth and power are things to be grabbed for self and family and mates, not for community. I suppose they all assume that's the way it'll be so the tragedy of the commons is expressed as winner takes all in Iraq. Around the world, community interest for We the People is not normal. Even in the best of societies there is a very strong tendency for people to vote for government funds to be directed to themselves, preferably as cash in the bank rather than shared community facilities.
Christians can also come up with at least 1% Christian Jihadists, but fortunately, these days, they are not so violent as they were. They are constantly trying to wage Jihad against the rest of us and inflict their ideology on us.
Mqurice |
