Day: June 2, 2005

The New York Post crunches some interesting numbers about suicide bombers in Iraq.

More than 40 percent of the suicide bombers dispatched by terror leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi to attack Iraqis and U.S. troops hailed from Saudi Arabia, according to a new study.

Only 9 percent of the bombers were Iraqis, said the report by the SITE Institute, a counterterror group.

The analysis bolsters the Bush administration’s claims that the Iraqi borders are not well policed and fanatical foreign jihadists have been streaming into the country to wreak deadly havoc.

SITE recently discovered a “Martyrs’ List” that Zarqawi posted on a Web site to commemorate the fanatics who were recruited as foot soldiers in the group’s deadly campaign of car bombings and other attacks to undermine Iraq’s transition to democracy.

I’m sorry. Did I type “suicide bombers” instead of “martyrs” a moment ago? Silly typo on my part.

An analysis of 107 bombers whose names and backgrounds Zarqawi’s group published revealed that 45 of the dead extremists, or 42 percent, came from Saudi Arabia, said Rita Katz, SITE director.

Many other bombers were Syrian, Kuwaiti, Palestinian, Afghani, Libyan and even French, while only 10 of the attackers, or 9 percent, were Iraqi-born.

“What we see here is there are a lot of people who appear to be quite well educated leaving universities, good jobs and families to go to Iraq to fight the jihad,” Katz said.

“It means there is huge support for Zarqawi and al Qaeda among the younger generation — particularly in Saudi Arabia — who are going to Iraq not to liberate Iraq, but to engage in the battle between the mujahedeen and the crusaders. This is in Iraq now. But it could be somewhere else tomorrow.”

These numbers mean a couple of things. First, there is much support for the radical Islamist movement in the Arab countries outside of Iraq. Second, the Arab world in general, be it their spiritual leaders, political heads or regional media, are far too grounded in a culture centuries old, centuries past. The region as a whole needs some freakin’ shock treatment. Thus, the strategy of a free, democratic Iraqi populace. It may work and save millions of lives; it may yet fail and not avert the sustained attack on western civilization.

My problem with the story in the Post is not content, but rather headline. To look at numbers on suicide bombers and project that to the entire situation with the headline “What Insurgency?” is simply wrong. Yes, there are Iraqi insurgents; they are predominantly Baathists and Sunnis who are fighting against a state where there role will be greatly diminished. The tactic of suicide bombings against civilians has not been alleged to be one of their weapons — such atrocities are predominantly in the realm of the outsiders, those that value Islamist cause over Iraqi life. You know, scum like the outsider Zarqawi.

Iraq’s borders are an issue in keeping such foreigner crazies outside and away from innocent Iraqis.

Foreign fighters running amok in Iraq are becoming a growing security issue for the new Iraqi government.

Yesterday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was at the U.N. Security Council, demanding that Syria do more to stop foreign terrorists from crossing into Iraq. He charged Syria was a “main transit route” for the guerrillas.

Interestingly, the two blogs that pointed me to this story both took better takes on it than the headline writers at the Post.

First, Kevin Aylward at Wizbang! gives the following:

I’ve long been of the opinion that the argument that the war in Iraq would create a hotbed of terrorism was misguided. That Muslim jihadists from all over the Middle East are coming to Iraq to attack American forces is, in some respects, not necessarily a bad thing. Clearly these fanatics want to kill American’s and don’t much care where they do so. They’re out to get us, the only question is on whose turf the battle will be fought. At least in Iraq we have our trained military on the offensive against them.

Then Chad at In the Bullpen adds this observation:

What I do find interesting in this study is that none of the suicide bombers were Jordanian, Zarqawi’s country of origin. As suicide bombers are ordered to sacrifice theirselves, or sent in cars and detonated remotely without their knowledge, why haven’t more suicide bombers been Jordanian?

An Israeli general finds it is his turn to fade away, but he does not go with any sense of optimism.

The outgoing head of the Israeli military, General Moshe Yaalon, has warned that a new wave of bloodshed – whether through “terrorism” or war – is inevitable even if a Palestinian state is established.

Gen Yaalon, who reluctantly retired yesterday after falling out with Israel’s defence minister, told Haaretz newspaper that Palestinian attacks were likely to resume after Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this year unless the government followed up by pulling out of parts of the West Bank.

“If there is an Israeli commitment to another move, we will gain another period of quiet,” he said. “If not, there will be an eruption … Terrorist attacks of all types: shooting, bombs, suicide bombers, mortars.”

Even the creation of a Palestinian state would lead to war “at some stage”. He said that the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, had not abandoned the right of Palestinian refugees to return to what is now Israel.

“And this is not a symbolic right of return, but the right of return as a claim to be realised. To return to the houses, to return to the villages. The implication of this is that there will not be a Jewish state here.”

The idea that a Palestinian state can be created by 2009, as President George Bush has said he wants, was “divorced from reality” and “dangerous”.

The idea that a separate Palestinian state could be created in the next four years is not ridiculous, but the idea that such a state would contribute towards a long-term peace in the region is fairly far-fetched. Abbas’ commitment to the Palestinian right-of-return cause is a deal-breaker as currently couched. Add that to a Palestinian people, poisoned for generations by the likes of Yasser Arafat, that is probably several decades of unforeseen progress away from cohabitation with their neighbors and the general is right — take off your shades, the future ain’t so bright.

Adding to the general’s bleak outlook is his take on the Israeli military.

“A combination of terrorism and demography, with question marks among us about the rightness of our way, are a recipe for a situation in which there will not be a Jewish state here in the end,” he said.

Gen Yaalon also warned of deteriorating standards in the army, including what he described as a “criminal subculture” that had reached senior officers.

In the course of my professional life over the last decade, I have known literally hundreds of Israelis. I’ve know men who saw action in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. I’ve known some who spent time as settlers. The Israelis are a very western people, an oasis in a cultural desert, and the Israeli youth are as much an Mtv generation as their American counterparts.

Why the deteriorating standards in the Israeli military? The answer is quite simple. In the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the nation of Israel fought desperately for its survival. The last two generations have only seen conflicts for peace, pacification and retaliation.

Nobody believes that Israel will lose its military edge over its neighbors any time soon, but it is certainly a low-key campaign of attrition, a test of wills. Can Israel keep its edge long enough for the surrounding Arab states to be brought, cheerfully or dragged kicking and screaming, into the modern era, into an age of some degree of acceptance? The current effort in Iraq may have a large part to say in this matter.