Bush says there are 3 different Iraq insurgent groups. More like 100

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13309474.htm

Iraq insurgent groups are many

LACK OF UNITY MAKES GROUPS HARD TO DESTROY

By Dexter Filkins

New York Times


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Here is a small sampling of the insurgent groups that claimed responsibility for attacks on American and Iraqi forces in the past few months:

Supporters of the Sunni People. The Men's Faith Brigade. The Islamic Anger. Al-Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigade. The Tawid Lions of Abdullah Ibn al-Zobeir. While some of them, like the Suicide Brigade, claim an affiliation with Al-Qaida and Al-Qaida claims them, others either claim to act alone or under the guidance of another group.

While on Wednesday President Bush promised nothing less than ``complete victory'' over the Iraqi insurgency, the apparent proliferation of militant groups in Iraq offers perhaps the best explanation of why the insurgency has been so hard to destroy.

The Bush administration has long maintained, and Bush reiterated in his speech Wednesday, that the insurgency comprises three elements: disaffected Sunni Arabs, or ``rejectionists''; former Saddam Hussein government loyalists; and foreign-born terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaida.

In Iraq, Iraqi and American officials say the single most important fact about the insurgency is that it consists not of a few groups but of dozens, possibly as many as 100. And it is not a coherent organization whose members dutifully carry out orders from above, but a far-flung collection of smaller groups that often act on their own or come together for a single attack, officials say.

[genie_weenie]

1. It's only 100

if you include such groups as the Judean People's Front or the Judean Popular People's Front! Splitters! Splitters!

[dusmcj]

2. logical flaw here!!!!! beware of burning sacks of poop on the front step!

Bush (and the WH strategy paper) is talking about three categories of insurgent group. There may be hundreds of groups, now, for each one, does it fit into one of the three categories, or did the WH miss a whole category. I.e., is their categorization accurate ?

To spell it out ad nauseam: Joy and Palmolive are each a kind of dishwashing liquid.

[NNN0LHI]

3. He didn't mention any anti-occupation insurgents. Bet there are some

>>>that the insurgency comprises three elements: disaffected Sunni Arabs, or ``rejectionists''; former Saddam Hussein government loyalists; and foreign-born terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaida<<<

Which group would al-Sadr fit into among the ones he listed? He isn't Sunni. He is not a Saddam loyalist. Saddam almost killed his whole family. And he isn't foreign.

Don

[dusmcj]

5. Doober's tokin a fatty if he thinks Sunnis are the only rejectionists

The CIA told him there is a "classic insurgency" in Iraq. Given that Iraq was always a font of nationalism as well as pan-Arabism, and knows it is both the cradle of civilization and the seat of some of the great Caliphates, that's not too surprising. It's simple really: people with a strong sense of cultural identity notice that a foreigner has invaded their land, and decide that that foreigner will be ejected. (And hence the general use of "McDonalds and MTV" as an export weapon, and the permitted looting of the symbols of Iraq's cultural heritage to break strong cultural identities.) The French, the Yugoslavs, Ho or any other partisan grouping in recent memory were no different. And all of Rumjob's attempts at linguistic denial don't change that one iota - the Administration of Vigorous Wishing (or is that the Administration of Proof by Vigorous Assertion - something we were told was a guaranteed 'F') has a problem which they aren't wanting to deal with.

The old farmer who shot down an Apache with his Enfield bolt action or whatever it was wasn't an anomaly; in terms of motivation he seems very similar to some of the Mujahedeen two countries east (although those are celebrated as heroes because they're on our side, but then we're back to the old "terrorist or freedom fighter" adage, and that horse is truly dead). He may be Sunni, but who cares - Sunni or Shiite, the mass of those active in the insurgency, as portrayed by the publicly available main stream media in the US, seem to be operating on and motivated by the simple principle that people from other countries don't park themselves in yours and tell you what to do. Simple really, but the administration's need to portray the opposition as trivial and without support forces them to attempt to delude us (and themselves, see the latest bulletin from the Oval Office in the New Yorker) that it's not that way.

[NoPasaran]

4. Bush has a very limited concept of numbers

One... two... many