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From AP:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. and Iraqi officials have long believed that foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq through its porous borders with Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia are behind most suicide missions, and the recent wave of bloody strikes has confirmed that thinking.
Authorities have found little evidence that Iraqis have been behind the near-daily stream of suicide attacks over the past six months, U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.
The key role of foreign fighters in suicide attacks is one reason many senior military officials, including the top U.S. general in the Middle East, tend to view the war in Iraq as slowly developing into an international struggle against militant Islam.
If confirmed, this is big news.
It is tragic that these terrorist attacks are killing Iraqi civilians. But given that those attacks are occurring, it would be very encouraging to find that they are not being carried out by other Iraqi citizens.
#1
#2Are you SURE, the "flypaper strategy" is working? Are the terrorists REALLY so tied down in Iraq that we no longer have to worry about them striking in New York or London?
#3You seem to be applying the standards of Hollywood movies in this case. In the movies, the hero does one thing, and that's the end of the bad buys forever. No one has proposed that the flypaper strategy would result in us "no longer have to worry about them striking in New York or London" or elsewhere.
Aren't you glad that the terrorists blowing up bombs in Iraq, are busy there, rather than in other countries? Isn't it better having them in Iraq where our army can go after them?
#4And, as no one other than pesky bloggers seems to point out, this whole "turn Iraq into a terorrist battlezone" plan is rather at odds with the "turn Iraq into a free and stable Democratic society" idea.
But, we will be resolute! Now watch this drive...
#5And, as no one other than pesky bloggers seems to point out, this whole “turn Iraq into a terorrist battlezone” plan is rather at odds with the “turn Iraq into a free and stable Democratic society” idea.
The goal is not to “turn Iraq into a terorrist battlezone”. The goal is to “turn Iraq into a free and stable Democratic society”. The terrorists we are fighting there are seeking to prevent Iraq from continuing as a free Democracy.
The terrorists exist; we have to fight them somewhere. It's better to fight them in Iraq rather than on our soil, all the more so as that's where our army can go after them.
Do you pretend that the terrorists do not exist and are not trying to kill us?
#6Your question is quite the nonsequitur.
Terrorists do exist. To the best of my knowledge, terrorists have never tried to kill me. I don't know whether any have tried to kill you.
#7Terrorists do exist.
Very good.
To the best of my knowledge, terrorists have never tried to kill me. I don’t know whether any have tried to kill you.
Are you saying that if they do another attack on a democratic nation comparable to the 7-7 attacks on London, or the 9-11 attacks on the U.S., it's okay with you, as long as they don't target you personally?
#8Study cites seeds of terror in Iraq
New investigations by the Saudi Arabian government and an Israeli think tank -- both of which painstakingly analyzed the backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to fight the United States -- have found that the vast majority of these foreign fighters are not former terrorists and became radicalized by the war itself. [...]
A separate Israeli analysis of 154 foreign fighters compiled by a leading terrorism researcher found that despite the presence of some senior Al Qaeda operatives who are organizing the volunteers, ''the vast majority of [non-Iraqi] Arabs killed in Iraq have never taken part in any terrorist activity prior to their arrival in Iraq."
#9Thanks for this great link. I've just posted two articles about it.
I wonder how the families of the dead Iraqi civilians feel about the "flypaper strategy."