Extremists Increasingly Leaving Iraq for Afghanistan
conflict in Iraq is drawing fewer foreign fighters as Muslim extremists aspiring to battle the West turn their attention back to the symbolically important and increasingly violent turf of Afghanistan...
... suggests that Al Qaeda and its allies, armed with new tactics honed in Iraq, are coming full circle five years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban mullahs.
Foreign fighters are predominantly Sunni. They increasingly prefer fighting alongside the Taliban to getting embroiled in the Sunni-versus-Shiite bloodshed in Iraq,
The policy debate underway in the US does not address this complexity.
Where does the US military leadership find the experienced, fresh troops to be ready for the Administration who likely will want to increase forces in Afghanistan? Don Rumsfeld wanted his legacy to be the Transformation of the military to a lighter and more effective force. He will now have to prove he has done what he said.
But Iraqi PM al Maliki emphasizes that foreign terrorists are at the root of violence in Iraq [pg 2 of this NYTimes link]:
And back to the LATimes link for more specifics on the decline of foreign terrorists going to Iraq
October 25, 2006 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Years ago there was an article in Newsweek about bank robberies in NYC and LA. NYC has much fewer of them. One part of the explanation is that driving quickly away is an important part of a bank robbery, and while it is occasionally possible in LA (there are some periods of lighter traffic that coincide with the hours when the banks are open), it is hardly ever possible in NYC.
Of course, one can run away on foot -- if it is hard to drive for the robbers, it is also hard to drive for police. But at the time it was not safe to walk around NYC with a large amount of cash -- the article had a story of a bank robber who was mugged and felt so aggrevated by his loss that he reported the mugging to police.
Perhaps Iraq is too unsafe for holy warriors.
October 25, 2006 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink