A Summer Of Tears
A seemingly endless wave of car bombings Leaves Many Iraqis--and Americans--in Despair
American officials do not believe that Sunni Baathists necessarily want civil war. Instead, says Lt. Gen. John Vines, who oversees day-to-day operations of all coalition forces in Iraq, their strategy is to pursue what amounts to a coup. Sunni insurgent leaders are trying to infiltrate the army while at the same time destabilizing the government through intimidation, assassinations, and roadside bomb attacks. Eventually, Vines argues, Baathists hope to use the military to return a Sunni strongman to power. "It's a classic Baathist strategy," Vines says.
While suicide bombers dominate the news, the numbers of foreign militants are small compared with ranks of Iraqi Sunni insurgents, estimated at perhaps 20,000. American military leaders say Sunni insurgents are a more potent force, but they also recognize the impact of the jihadists. "The suicide bombers are less dangerous militarily," says Col. Ben Hodges, the chief of operations for the Multinational Corps Iraq. "But their tactics are so spectacular they generate an effect out of proportion to what they do. If you do not stop the suicide bombing, the optimism of people in coalition countries starts to wane."
Despite the varying agenda and disparate tactics, most American grunts and even their commanders tend to call every fighter, foreign or domestic, a "terrorist" or a "muj" --short for mujahideen. Hodges says it is useful to keep the two groups of insurgents linked in the minds of Iraqis, as well. "The former regime wants to regain power," he says. "That insurgency requires popular support. But it makes it difficult for them to gain that support if they are seen as connected to the Islamic extremists who are slaughtering Iraqis."
Identifying who exactly is carrying out suicide attacks is a tricky business. There have been some 480 car bombings in Iraq since the handover of sovereignty a year ago, according to the Associated Press; the explosions killed at least 2,174 people and wounded 5,520. The military tries to piece together a picture of who is attacking Iraqis by forensic analysis of the dead bombers, interviews with captured jihadists, and confessions from failed suicide bombers. American officials say the largest share of the suicide bombers are Saudis and the second-biggest group are Syrians. Vines says the primary source of foreign fighters comes from recruiters who work mosques around the Middle East looking for young men eager for jihad against America. A senior intelligence official in Iraq told U.S. News that some of the bombers are recruited through mosques in isolated parts of Sudan or Yemen, where there is little access to satellite television. As a result, those recruits have no knowledge that ordinary Iraqis, not American soldiers, are increasingly the targets. "These individuals are disenchanted when we capture them," said the intelligence official. "They feel they have been lied to."
What's more, American military officials believe that many of the suicide bombers in Iraq did not initially volunteer to die; rather they believe they are signing up to fight a more traditional battle against an occupying power. "We have indicators that many don't come here intent on killing Iraqi civilians or themselves," says Vines. "They come here to participate in a jihad. Only late in the process are they made aware they are expected to kill themselves."
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