Where Our Enemies Live

Foreign Fighters in Iraq Are Tied to Allies of U.S. by Richard A. Oppel Jr. in today's NY Times shows where the foreign al Qaeda insurgents in Iraq come from. The leading source countries are no surprise: Saudi Arabia, Libya, Algeria, and Morocco. These countries should head our list of bombing targets in the event that we finally decide to win and therefore end the war on terror, and/or we are attacked again on our homeland.

Here is the first of several quotes from the article:

"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....

About four out of every five detainees in American detention centers are Sunni Arab, even though Sunni Arabs make up just one-fifth of Iraq’s population."

This is why it is puzzling that so many pundits warn us not to withdraw from Iraq for fear that the Shiites in Iraq and Iran would slaughter the Iraqi Sunnis. In my book, that would be a great outcome, since not only are most of the insurgents we are fighting in Iraq Sunni, but also because the 9/11 attackers were all Sunni.

"American military and diplomatic officials who discussed the flow of fighters from Saudi Arabia were careful to draw a distinction between the Saudi government and the charities and individuals who they said encouraged young Saudi men to fight in Iraq. After United States officials put pressure on Saudi leaders in the summer, the Saudi government took some steps that have begun to curb the flow of fighters, the officials said."

Our foreign policy towards Saudi Arabia is irrational. First, their government did not take the required steps to curb the flow of fighters for several years, until we "prodded" them. Second, that government is a dictatorship which does not even represent the majority of the Saudi population, which hates us even more than the government. "Yet the senior American military officials said they also believed that Saudi citizens provided the majority of financing for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia." I believe that "Saudi citizens provided the majority of financing for Al Qaeda" period. Ditto for the warm bodies as well.

"The largest foreign fighter hometown was Darnah, Libya, which supplied 50 fighters." So, add that city to our list of future bombing targets.

"For years American officials included Libya on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. But last year the United States removed it from that list and re-established full diplomatic relations, citing what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described as Libya’s “continued commitment to its renunciation of terrorism and the excellent cooperation” it has provided in the antiterrorism fight." What leadership! "But there were no Lebanese listed among the Sinjar trove, and only 56 Syrians, or 8 percent of the total." So, Lebanon, if not removed completely from the list of future bombing targets, should be placed at the very end of any such list.

"Saudis brought more money per person than fighters from other nations, the American officials said." No surprise. Every time we buy gasoline for our cars, we are giving money to Saudis who use it to kill Americans.

"Among the Saudi fighters described in the materials, 45 had come from Riyadh, 38 from Mecca, 20 from Buraidah and the surrounding area, 15 from Jawf and Sakakah, 13 from Jidda, and 12 from Medina." This suggests a priority list of targets by our bombers. Mecca and Medina also have symbolic value, since our enemy's religion plays such a large role in the present war.

"Sunni tribal sheiks in Iraq who risked their lives to fight extremist militants also faulted Saudi clerics." This demonstrates clearly that not all Muslims are our enemy. We should always be mindful that we can break the spirit of our enemy by killing large numbers of them and yet only a tiny percentage of them. That is how we won World War II.

Another example of the role Islam plays in this war: "“The bad imams tell the young people to go to Iraq and fight the American Army, because if you kill them or they kill you, you will go to paradise,” Sheik Adnan Khames Jamiel, a leader of the Albu Alwan tribe in Ramadi, said in an interview."

Islam is by no means a monolith, and we can use the ancient tactic of divide and conquer to defeat our enemy: "... the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheik Abdulaziz al-Asheik, condemned “mischievous parties” who send young Saudis abroad to carry out “heinous acts which have no association with Islam whatsoever.”"

The raid on Sinjar "happened in the predawn hours of Sept. 11, when American forces acting on a tip surrounded some tents six miles from the Syrian border". What irony.

"Most of the fighters smuggled by the cell were believed to have flown into Damascus Airport, and the rest came into Syria overland through Jordan, the officials said.
In some cases, one senior American military official said, Syrian authorities captured fighters and released them after determining they were not a threat to the Syrian government. Syria has made some recent efforts to turn back or detain suspected foreign fighters bound for Iraq, he said, adding, “The key word is ‘some.’”" As I have long argued, Syria should certainly be near the top of our target list, perhaps right after the "kingdom" of Saudi Arabia.