Only about 700 foreign fighters entered Iraq this year

The insurgency in Iraq was and remains mostly Sunni and Iraqi. Sixty percent of the 700 foreign fighters who arrived in Iraq this year to help the Iraq insurgents came from America's allies, Saudi Arabia and Libya. From the fort Worth Star-Telegram:

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. -- The New York Times

BAGHDAD -- Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered allies by the U.S. in its fight against terrorism, were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year to serve as suicide bombers or to facilitate other attacks, according to senior U.S. military officials.

The data come largely from a trove of documents and computers discovered in September, when American forces raided a tent camp in the desert near Sinjar, close to the Syrian border. The raid's target was an insurgent cell believed to be responsible for smuggling the vast majority of foreign fighters into Iraq.

The most significant discovery was a collection of biographical sketches that listed hometowns and other details for more than 700 fighters brought into Iraq since August 2006.

The records also underscore how the insurgency in Iraq remains overwhelmingly Iraqi and Sunni. U.S. officials estimate that the flow of foreign fighters was 80 to 110 per month during the first half of this year and about 60 per month during the summer. The numbers fell sharply in October to no more than 40, partly as a result of the Sinjar raid, the officials say.

Saudis accounted for the largest number by far of fighters listed on the records -- 305, or 41 percent -- U.S. intelligence officers found as they combed through documents and computers in the weeks after the raid. The data show that despite increased efforts by Saudi Arabia to clamp down on would-be terrorists since 9-11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, some Saudi fighters are still getting through.

Libyans accounted for 137 foreign fighters, or 18 percent of the total, the senior U.S. military officials said.

So the insurgency in Iraq is primarily Iraqis with little external support. If bin Laden's al Qaeda is doing anything (beyond just world-wide fundamentalist jihadi public relations on TV and the Internet) it isn't doing much of anything at all in Iraq.

That means the fighting in Iraq is almost entirely an Iraqi internal civil war rather than being caused by international terrorism, so U.S. troops are not fighting international terrorism while they remain in Iraq. It looks like our diplomats should be working with the governments of Saudi Arabia and Libya prevent or find and catch the volunteers going to Iraq.

The other part of the war on terror should involve the U.S. fighting a real public relations battle on TV and the Internet. The key is to gain control of the hearts and minds of the majority non-aligned people in the Middle East. They can be reached by offering the same messages of hope that won the Cold War, but the only thing the Bush administration has offered with the invasions and threats of invasions and bombings is reasons to fear and hate America. Any effective PR battle will be delayed until AFTER the U.S. withdraws from Iraq and Dick Cheney stops threatening to bomb Iran.

That is not to say the military is not needed to go after terrorists. Military force is still needed to go after the really nasty creeps like Bush's friend, bin Laden. (Why was he ever allowed to escape from Tora Bora?) Instead Bush and Cheney got our military totally bogged down in an unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq which is mostly counterproductive to the effort of effectively going after terrorists on a world-wide basis.

The presence of American troops in Iraq at present is doing little except destroying the combat effectiveness of our troops, damaging our reputation world wide with the collateral damage and the Blackwater (and other) mercenaries, while simultaneously destroying the American federal budget in case those troops are really needed somewhere.

Consider this, also from the bottom of the same article in the fort Worth Star-Telegram:

General speaks out: Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq shortly after the fall of Baghdad, said he supports Democratic legislation that calls for most troops to come home within a year. "The improvements in security produced by the courage and blood of our troops have not been matched by a willingness on the part of Iraqi leaders to make the hard choices necessary to bring peace to their country," Sanchez said in remarks to be aired Saturday for the weekly Democratic radio address.

Our real enemies are not in Iraq now, if they ever were. It is time for us to apologize to the Iraqis, offer reparations and get out of their country. It is time to get serous about fighting international terrorism and leave the Iraqi sideshow.