California Conservative

There are many supposed “percentage statistics” of just how many foreign fighters there are in Iraq as opposed to real Iraqi’s. For the purpose of this article I will refer to foreign fighters as “terrorists” and Iraqi fighters as “insurgents.”
The reader will see why in a little while.

Let’s say that 10 percent are terrorists. That does not seem like a large amount. But what if the 10 percent were functioning as recruiters, as leaders, and as equippers of suicide bombers? This would mean the actual “insurgents” are probable the ones doing the duck and run, and planting the IED’s. That would make the terrorists responsible for most of the suicide bombings. Read this Washington Post article:

‘Martyrs’ In Iraq Mostly Saudis
Web Sites Track Suicide Bombings

By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page A01

Before Hadi bin Mubarak Qahtani exploded himself into an anonymous fireball, he was young and interested only in “fooling around.”

Like many Saudis, he was said to have experienced a religious awakening after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and dedicated himself to Allah, inspired by “the holy attack that demolished the foolish infidel Americans and caused many young men to awaken from their deep sleep,” according to a posting on a jihadist Web site.

On April 11, he died as a suicide bomber, part of a coordinated insurgent attack on a U.S. Marine base in the western Iraq city of Qaim. Just two days later, “the Martyrdom” of Hadi bin Mubarak Qahtani was announced on the Internet, the latest requiem for a young Saudi man who had clamored to follow “those 19 heroes” of Sept. 11 and had found in Iraq an accessible way to die.

Hundreds of similar accounts of suicide bombers are featured on the rapidly proliferating array of Web sites run by radical Islamists, online celebrations of death that offer a wealth of information about an otherwise shadowy foe at a time when U.S. military officials say that foreign fighters constitute a growing and particularly deadly percentage of the Iraqi insurgency.

This means two things for the U.S. For one, haven’t many in the MSM and even Senators been telling us that Iraq is a “quagmire”? If 90 percent are really insurgents, then this simply isn’t true. Eventually the Iraqi forces will take more and more control of their country, and the “insurgency” as a fire with no fuel, will be put out. The Iraqi insurgents will eventually see that this is their country, and these are their people that they are killing. We are already seeing this. Some of them would not be happy unless Saddam was in power again, and they would be fighting no matter who was trying to help the sensible majority.

Secondly, if only 10 percent are foreign, and those 10 percent are the real nut cases, it is actually good news that they are a minority. This means that perhaps there are not as many of them pouring across the border as we had thought. It also means, like diseased people on a remote island, that after they and their children all blow themselves up there will not be locals rushing in to take their place.

I believe that there are Iraqi’s strapping bombs to themselves and carrying out suicide/murder attacks, but that they are the exception and not the norm.

If only we could get close to them, right? If only we could ask them why they do what they do? How could we ever get close enough for them to trust us? Maybe if we consoled them. Or greased their palms with a little decadent American cash! Wouldn’t that be “giving aid and comfort to the enemy?” Well, I hate to always bag on Time magazine, but one of their reporters named Aparisim Ghosh got close enough to do just that…

Look at an excerpt from this article

Posted Monday, Oct. 17, 2005
“Daddy, I want to be a martyr. Can you get me an explosive belt?”

When Abu Qaqa al-Tamimi’s 9-year-old son asked for his help in becoming a suicide bomber, he was, to say the least, taken aback. “This is not what you expect to hear from a little boy,” says al-Tamimi, an Iraqi man in his late 40s with close-cropped hair and a thin beard lining a round face. “I didn’t know what to say.” The son had even come up with a proposed target. “There was an American checkpoint near his school, and he said, ‘They won’t suspect me because I’m a kid, so I can walk right up to them and explode the belt.’”

Like other Iraqi parents, al-Tamimi frets about the emotional toll on his child caused by the daily onslaught of suicide bombings. But al-Tamimi bears a personal responsibility for his son’s bizarre ambitions. For the past 13 months, al-Tamimi has played a crucial, and murderous, role in the Iraqi insurgency: he is one of a small number of operatives who provide would-be suicide bombers with everything from safe houses to target information and explosives. Al-Tamimi says he also acts as a guardian, religious guide and all-around father figure in the final days of a bomber’s life. “Once a volunteer is placed in my care,” he says, “I am responsible for everything in his life until the time comes for him to end it.” Al-Tamimi is often the last person bombers talk to before their deadly mission. He is so proficient at facilitating suicide bombings that he says his own brother and sister have asked to be considered for “martyrdom operations.” He gave them some basic training but advised them to find other, less drastic ways of serving the insurgency. “A suicide bombing should be the last resort,” he says. “It should not be a shortcut to paradise.”

Okay, first question. Just how does one get this close to an “insurgent”? Over 2000 American soldiers have died, many from IED’s planted by insurgents. Our soldiers are the men who gave the First Amendment to the press. How dare they hide behind that Amendment, giving aid and comfort to the enemy? Was this a chance meeting? Hardly. Read on…

Al-Tamimi met with TIME in two interviews spanning five hours. He agreed to meet with us after members of the TIME staff approached Iraqi contacts who are close to the insurgency, in an effort to gain information on the ways in which suicide-bombing networks operate.

Funny. Even though I find Time to be a liberal rag, they do have a fan club. No, not the Michael Moore’s and the Cindy Sheehan’s of this world, but those who call our enemies their friends. Real nice. When I walked away from drugs and alcohol over 12 years ago, I shredded every phone number of every acquaintance I had previously partied with. Guess what? As a result of faith, prayer, determination and perseverance, I overcame several crippling addictions. I have no desire to hang around with people with do things that will destroy me. The U.S. has enemies, dangerous and deadly. Why would Time reporters want to know them, want to carry their numbers in their pockets?

Isn’t it a dishonor to every American soldier who died in combat?

Who the heck wants a “face on the enemy”?

If they have no sense of patriotism, aren’t they just a little concerned for their own lives?

Read on…

Al-Tamimi talks breathlessly about the religious fervor and iron determination of the young men sent to him. He cites the example of his current charge, a Saudi barely past his teens who arrived in Baghdad early this month. “You can’t imagine how excited and happy he is,” al-Tamimi says. “He can’t stop smiling and laughing, even singing. He is sure he is going to paradise, and he just can’t wait.” But al-Tamimi’s dealings with jihadist groups have left him suspicious about their long-term goals in Iraq. “I’ve had many conversations with them, and I keep asking, ‘What is your vision?’” he says. “They never have a straight answer.” He fears they want to turn Iraq into another Afghanistan, with a Taliban-style government. Even for a born-again Muslim, that’s a distressing scenario. So, he says, “one day, when the Americans have gone, we will need to fight another war, against these jihadis. They won’t leave quietly.”

Ahhhhh. So this “insurgency leader” (has anybody even proven that he is an Iraqi?) is training up kids from Saudi Arabia who are coming across the borders to die? So much for the lie that Iraqi’s are the ones blowing themselves up (for the most part). And even he understands that the goal of Al Qaeda is not to “in surge” and give the Sunni’s back Iraq, but to make a safe Haven for Osama, Zarqawi, and the rest of America’s enemies. Nice going, journalists.

The fact that there are many foreign fighters in Iraq is confirmed by articles like this one here..

“the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said that counterinsurgency forces had captured 376 foreign nationals this year, and that a majority were Egyptians, Syrians, Sudanese and Saudis.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said that “terrorists and foreign fighters” whose tactics are focused on suicide bombings were the “most lethal” insurgents.”

So even though foreign fighters may not be the majority, many of them are leaders, and they are the most deadly — the ones carrying out suicide bombings…

Back to the Time article…

In the meantime, he is focusing on more immediate matters. He has told his son that he is too young to become a martyr but says he recently taught the child how to make roadside bombs and how to fashion a rudimentary rocket launcher out of metal tubes. (He also gave TIME a propaganda video, in which he and two other adults teach a group of four children how to jury-rig a pair of artillery shells into a bomb.) “We have to prepare the next generation for battle,” he says. “We have to realize that the fight against the Americans might last a long, long time.” So long as men like him continue to send their young to die, that prediction may well come true.

How about the conclusion… “We have to realize that the fight against the Americans might last a long, long time.” Liberal talking point. I wonder who gets their cue from whom???

And…

“So long as men like him continue to send their young to die, that prediction may well come true.”

Ummmmm. No. When a bunch of men send their kids to die, they need to have more kids and wait 7 or 9 years to strap bombs on them. The insurgents are men, for cryin’ out loud, not rabbits.

The left can’t have it both ways.

If we are fighting foreigners we are fighting an endless supply — but they don’t like that because that takes away from their, “We are the invaders fighting insurgents” mantra.

If we are fighting insurgents then the supply of fighters is limited, but then the insurgency in Iraq, like a candle, will eventually run out of fuel and die.

As we saw in the beginning, both are true. We are fighting utter madmen (suicide bombers) that come across the porous borders seeking to establish a safe haven for Al Qaeda and Osama, and the rest of the radical Islamic fanatics. We are also fighting Iraqi insurgents, those who would fight us if no matter who we are. But for them it is also about power. Either way, the media spins it 180 degrees of the truth.

Since we are fighting foreign terrorists- every one killed is one less that may potentially make it over here and attack the US. As the Iraqi police and military grows, they will be able to better secure their own borders.
Since we are fighting insurgents, there is not an “endless supply.” As the Iraqi police and military grows, they will be able to better secure their own country.

Either way, the war is winnable — and we are winning.

In closing, remember this article in which we saw…

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Three massive vehicle bombs exploded Monday near the Palestine Hotel, home to many Western journalists, killing at least 20 people. Dramatic TV pictures showed one of the bombers driving a cement truck through the concrete blast walls that guard the hotel, then blowing up his vehicle.
Iraq’s national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the attack _ which appeared well-planned _ was a “very clear” effort to take over the hotel and seize journalists as hostages.

Perhaps interviews like the one in the Time article were bait for the terrorists.

It appears that “sleeping with the enemy” is not such a good idea after all. As I posted on redstate.org:

When I saw the Time article “professor of death” - the exclusive interview with the homocide bomber I asked myself…
1) How exactly does one connect with these type of people?
2) Shouldn’t they be turned over to the military?
3) Who says that they can be trusted?
4) Wouldn’t they potentially target our group?

It appears that the answers are “One shouldn’t, yes, they can’t, and they would, respectively.

To end on a positive note, read this article HERE

Islamic Clerics Condemn Use Of Children In Suicide Bombings
Prague, 3 November 2005 (RFE/RL) —
According to Western news agencies, the suicide bomber was between 10 and 13 years old and detonated his explosive belt as a car carrying Kirkuk’s police chief passed nearby. He reportedly died instantly, while the Iraqi official and his driver were wounded.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which appears to be one of the first cases in which Iraqi insurgents have used a young boy to carry out such a suicide mission.

The reports have shocked observers in many parts of the world, including mainstream Muslim clerics.

Several Islamic scholars interviewed by RFE/RL said Islam condemns the use of children for military purposes.

Khodaiverdi Egamberdi, head of FATWA at the Islamic Center of Tajikistan, said suicide is un-Islamic and those who force children into suicide bombings cannot be considered Muslims.

“These are not Islamic acts; Islam does not allow a person to kill himself,” Egamberdi said. “These are terrorist acts. Maybe they promised something to that child and his parents, [but] Islam doesn’t accept it.”

Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf, a prominent religious scholar in Tashkent, said suicide bombings by civilians — including women and children — are forbidden by Islam.

“Involvement of children in this is not supported by Shari’a [Islamic law],” he said. “Involving children whose development is not fully completed yet, cannot be supported from a religious point of view, nor can it be understood from a human point of view.”

Kyrgyz Mufti Murataaly Hajji Jumanov said the use of children as human bombs is considered a grave sin in Islam.

“Our prophet [singled out those who misused children] saying, ‘They are not from us, they are not from my community,’” Jumanov said. “There is such a hadith that says that someone who does not treat children with kindness and who does not respect people older himself, that man is not from our [Muslim] community.”

The head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the top body representing the Crimean Tatar community on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, and member of the Ukrainian parliament, Mustafa Djemilev, said those who recruit children for terrorist purposes commit a serious crime and should be held responsible.

“It is clear that those who packed the child with explosives were adult men,” Djemilev said. “And the biggest sin is of course on those adults. I simply cannot find words — it’s a loathsome crime to involve children in such blasts.”

Farid Mohammad Omar, the imam of one of Kabul’s mosques, also condemned the misuse and manipulation of children by terrorist groups.

“They cause incitement, they push [children] in this direction; instead there should be peaceful incitement, children should be [brought up] in a way so that they can offer something for the future of the society,” Omar said. “But if you tell them go and kill, it is like the pre-Islam era when girls were buried alive. Today, children should be given a good, Islamic education. In my view, what they do is wrong; it causes death and it gives Islam a bad name.”

Two groups are being alienated in Iraq. This means further victory.

1) Al Qaeda fanatics.
2) Saddam loyalists

The U.S. is not the enemy.

There are 200,000 Iraqi troops trained.
There are 150,000 US troops there.
Estimated need for security is 400,000 Iraq is halfway there.

We can begin reducing troop levels soon, if the civilians and non-military government employees will just shut up, work the jobs they are paid to do, and leave national security to the professionals: the MILITARY!

Cross-posted at Rightfielder