Democratic Underground - Military spokesman absolutely wrong about al Qaeda in Iraq

I think that this is a very important issue to know. Bush and his people have been talking more and more about al Qaeda being the main problem in Iraq solely to tie the Iraq War to 9/11. We need to all be aware of what they are trying to do. Be aware also that 90% of U.S. deaths come from Sunni insurgents.

Military spokesman absolutely wrong about al Qaeda in Iraq
by AJ in DC · 7/12/2007 05:15:00 PM ET

The Post reports that the chief spokesman for the U.S. military yesterday called al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) "the principal threat" to Iraqis.

This is, quite simply, completely and totally false.

Anyone who claims that the so-called al Qaeda in Iraq group is the "principal threat" to anything in that nation -- whether its citizens, the government, the political process, or any specific ethnic or sectarian group -- is either grossly ignorant of the realities of the Iraq war or blatantly lying. I honestly have no idea which it is in this case, though it's worth noting that the chief U.S. military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, was employed as a Special Assistant to the President prior to his current appointment.

Most reliable estimates put the fundamentalist/jihadist/al Qaeda actors in Iraq at around 3-5% of the total insurgency, with virtually no approximations exceeding 10%. I really cannot overstate how misleading it is to focus on al Qaeda when the driving forces of the conflict are average, native, very pissed-off -- but not religious fundamentalist -- Iraqis. The vast majority of the Sunni population is relatively secular (more secular, in fact, than Iraqi Shia), and even tacit support of jihadists is founded in anti-American sentiment. Even the sectarian violence is fueled more by localized conflicts between Sunni and Shia families, tribes, and militias than by al Qaeda.

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It's deja vu: To make the case for war in Iraq, the Bush administration misled the public about the relationship of Iraq to terrorism. Now, in an effort to bolster support for continuing the war, it is trying to link staying in Iraq with our efforts against global terrorist groups (which are, incidentally the strongest they have been since 9/11, largely because this administration put our intelligence and military resources into Iraq).

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http://www.americablog.com/2007/07/military-spokesman-absolutely-wrong.html

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