NYT: Loose Structure of Rebels Helps Them Survive in Iraq (~100 groups)

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/international/middleeast/02insurgency.html?hp&ex=1133499600&en=fbcc90437d8fded9&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Loose Structure of Rebels Helps Them Survive in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 1 - Here is a small sampling of the insurgent groups that have claimed responsibility for attacks on Americans and Iraqis in the last 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 Qaeda and Al Qaeda claims them, others say they have acted 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 offers perhaps the best explanation as to why the insurgency has been so hard to destroy.

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

Iraqi and American officials in Iraq 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, as often depicted, 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, the officials say. Each group is believed to have its own leader and is free to act on its own.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. duh

Who here thinks the insurgents are idiots who haven't figured out how to survive under the totalitarian nightmare we have imposed on Iraq?