Of the foreign fighters who arrived in Iraq in the past year, 41 percent were from Saudi Arabia and 18 percent were from Libya, both supposed allies in the war on terrorism, the New York Times reported based on documents and computers discovered by U.S. forces during a raid in September. But the problem of foreign fighters in Iraq isn’t as big as the Bush administration often suggests, as their number is very small compared with the number of Iraqi insurgents. For example, of the more than 25,000 inmates in American detention centers in Iraq, only about 290 are foreigners, the Times reported.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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42 Comments
Saudi Arabia has never been our ally. We’re their bitch. We protect the theocratic regime of the Saudis for their oil. We let them walk all over us because Reagan thought it would be neat to get it up the ass from a sheik rather than rely on alternative energy and efficiency.
Not to mention how they treat their women rape victims, huh??
The house of Saudi is in an awkward place, the legitimacy of their reign is several factors. They are the defenders of the two most holy sights within Saudi-Arabia. They are the defender and enforcer of the religious law that there will be only one faith within S.A. They are they defenders of the land and the people, they shall not give any of the above responsibilities to anyone else.
It has been so for over fourteen hundred years, but these responsibilities have gotten in the way of living in an ever-widening world. When the house of Saudi allowed U.S. Troops to be based within the country during the first Gulf war it was a blow to their legitimate right to rule. S.A. has always been a religious instead of a secular country. Dealing with an ever-growing secular world, except for their oil this has worked out fine for the family. If the family does much to fight the export of the Islamic faith or to stop the religious masses from engaging in Jihad. They lose their legitimacy to rule and will be overthrow as is the duty of all of Saudi-Arabian’s people. Within their land they have every right to fight extremism, it is outside of their domain that the rights fail.
So let me get this straight, holding 25,000 inmates in American detention centers in Iraq is a bad thing?
People do recall that there were a very bad group of people in Iraq that were from the Ba’ath Party? People may also recall that Shiites hated people in the Ba’ath party?
So it makes sense that there was going to be some ‘dog eat dog’ insurgency.
Now that there are 25,000 INSURGENTS held in prison, this is bad news how?
The only War Libya is an allie in is the one on good hygene.What exactly is the writer suggesting here?Citizens and media of the United States can’t even agree on which side to take on the war on terror.You expect a bunch of zealots to agree with its Government?
So I take it that you all are okay with drilling in Alaska and off ALL the coasts of this country until we come up with a real energy policy???
I know I am.
Not me, “Gene Raston” –
Keep drilling and burning oil “until we come up with a real energy policy?” Sounds like a drunk proposing he keeps drinking until he comes up with a real plan for sobriety.
Even George WMD Bush declared in the State of the Union Address that America has to cure itself of our addiction to oil.
Every dollar spent to dig another hole in the ground in a desperate attempt to find more oil is a dollar that cannot be spent developing new energy sources; that won’t be spent for mass transit and eco-friendly bullet trains; that won’t be spent on recycling spent nuclear fuel…
People such as you, “Gen Raston,” are like the people a century ago who yelled “Get a horse!” You seem so set in your ways you do not realize that technologies change. Oil companies are the 21st Century equivalent of the Buggy Whip industry of 1907. They’ll do anything to fight progress for only one reason: greed.
Sometime in the future, I predict our children or grandchildren will look back at this era and be astounded we wasted such a valuable resource — for plastics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals — by *BURNING* it! The same way we look back at 18th Century doctors who thought bleeding was a treament, our progeny will shake their heads at our ignorance.
If the answer is burning more oil, “Gene Raston,” you’re asking the wrong question.
So someone tell me again – just what country did most of the hi-jackers come from?
I guess we better invade another one of Saudi Arabia’s enemies to try to placate them.
Yes, Reagan’s meanderings were blameworthy. And he was heralded as a “pro-life” prez. Come again? In the early 1980s, (very conservative) Catholic priests condemned his fiscal policies from the pulpit. I know – I heard them. More than once. However, I was commanded by my confessor to vote for him because of his anti-abortion stance. (I didn’t.)
Sheesh….I’d probably be a lot happier chick if I had the blind faith and innocent trust of yore. But I can’t. This weekend, I read a book called “Papal Sin” by Garry Willis. This soul-shattering tome put the death knell to any lingering attraction for my former faith.
When it comes to certain crimes, I thought I knew who the most culpable individuals were (the perpetrators, of course). I was wrong.
When it comes to the late President, his protracted Alzheimer’s battle deserves sympathy – as does the devotion of his family. But the true (i.e., complete) saga of Reagan’s follies probably won’t be fully known – not for a long, long time.
LysistrataLet me get this straight, my confused fellow Blogger:
Wills claims to be “Catholic” to this day, yet his book, about Catholics, makes you want to reject your former faith, all the more?
I would suggest to you that Wills is NOT a practicing Catholic, and that you should study a bit more before making such profound decisions.
“Papal Sin reads and argues at varying times as if its author can’t decide if he is a Bible-thumping fundamentalist, a secular agnostic or a bitter ex-Catholic. But for the most part, Wills comes across as a Catholic with such a heavy-handed agenda that reasonableness or any attempt to accurately portray Church teaching has long since been abandoned for ideological zealotry. Wills states, for example, that the arguments for much of “what passes as current church doctrine are so intellectually contemptible that mere self-respect forbids a man to voice them as his own.”8 Such language would demand an immediate retraction and apology if its source were non-Catholic. Wills – and Doubleday – believe that it is acceptable as long as the author of the statement claims Catholicism as his own.
The level of rejection of basic tenets of Catholic belief within this book is profound, considering that the author firmly claims his Catholic identity and describes himself as a practicing Catholic. There is the standard fare concerning active support for women’s ordination, dismissal of celibacy, and embracing of artificial contraception. Wills goes further than many involved in Catholic dissent by also professing unqualified support for abortion rights.9 But he does not stop there. In the course of the book he rejects the teaching authority of the Church if exercised without lay involvement and agreement,10 the concept of papal infallibility and any possibility of divine guidance to papal teaching,11 the ordained priesthood,12 the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist13 and that the priest has the sacramental power alone to consecrate the Eucharist.14 Apostolic succession,15 the Immaculate Conception and Assumption,16 and Church teaching on homosexuality are dismissed as well.17 For the most part, the right for the Church to teach at all in the area of sexual morality is generally dismissed if it involves the actions of consenting adults.”
Please find time to read this review of your new-found hero’s weird book:
http://www.catholicleague.org/research/papalsins.html
The bush Saudi appeasers will come out in force today.
If most of the foreign fighters are coming out of Saudi Arabia, and not Iran, we should be threatening the Saudis with an invasion.
Hezbollah doesnt like it (Big Surprise, these terrorists want Israel completely destroyed), but it looks like Bush might be making headway on real mid-East peace:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071125/D8T4OHS00.html
Also, folks, when an American Citizen joins a terrorist organization, does that mean that the rest of the world can consider the USA a “state sponsor” of terrorism?
The nationality of terrorists is usually not relevant at all, when deciding which countries are with us or against us.
The whole point of Islamic Jihad is that they have given their allegiance to a cause, not a country.
Having said that, it would be nice if the “House of Saud” would quit financing the Medrassas and the radical clerics.
This is a difficult issue.
The left, however, gets mad at Bush for “failed diplomacy” on the one hand, then the Left “makes the perfect the enemy of the good” by making it appear that NO Moslem country is worthy of allegiance with the USA!
monkeyEconomics is NOT a “zero sum game”! The BEST way to make sure we have funds available, for alternative energy sources, is to keep our economy strong by FULL utilization of current energy sources.It is childish to think that hurting the economy, by denying us our own, domestic energy sources, will hasten any change to your “holy grail” of carbon free energy.
Sigh, Paul is pretending like he knows something about economics and world affairs.
They are out in full force today, Doug… Gonna be a lonnnng day!!
Doug knows how to insult people.This, of course, makes Doug an “expert” on everything.
I seem to know more than you on practically every subject Pauly. Your ignorance is a bigger insult than anything I can present.
Paul – I hope you are right about headway in the Middle east but if I were betting I would put my money on it not working. I fear it will be too little too late after seven years of opposition.
No Doug, your inflated ego says you know more about ’stuff’ than other people, when in fact it is just opinion you declare as knowledge and not fact.
I already blew you boat out of the water several times in which your response was to call names and disappear from the blog until a new topic came about.
Anybody ever wonder why they hung Saddam, while he was wearing a top coat?? If it was chilly in that building, why would that be of concern to a man who would soon be a corpse?? Could it be that maybe they hung him with a “harness” under the top coat?? And then whisked him away to some un-disclosed location, to keep him safe from the Occupiers???(that would be US)
Hey, I am just saying it COULD have happened that way!!
Do you really belivethat, or are you just throwing it out there to see what happens?
Freebird, I am just saying it COULD have happened… I am not saying it did… but I was sort of intrigued by the fact they hung him in a top coat….
I’m wondering if there were any coalition forces there, to confirm the execution was carried out. Not saying it wasnt but you would think the US would want to make sure the deed was done
i saw the video, but Hollywood hangings can sure look real as well… I mean, there has to be SOME reason why the Insurgents are fighting SO hard…
Reagan is dead. Hopefully his policies will soon meet the same fate.
We should all strive to be more like our “friends” the Saudis!http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_rape;_ylt=AmRFzrSWOsWBAeptNUacl.4UewgF
And we wonder where the Taliban got their ideas! Remember, the House of Saud and the House of Bush are joined at the hip.
Could it be that maybe they hung him with a “harness” under the top coat?? And then whisked him away to some un-disclosed location, to keep him safe from the Occupiers???(that would be US)Chas
Could be, if Bin Laden ever falls over dead on camera we will be in need of a new enemy!LOL, we put a eye patch on him and no one will recognizes it Saddam people will just see him on TV and say “ hey he looks familiar… Wasn’t he on the fourth season of Survivor?”.
Can’t wait to see how Hillary does with foreign relations.
She and Bill have good buddies in Qatar, but that’s about it.
If Hillary visits Saudi Arabia, she’ll have to wear a sheet over her head.
Course Bill makes her do that whenever she has to be taken care of, so she’s used to it.
I bet she does look better that way.
I’s been buzzin roun’
Looks ta me like you Pat is a bitter ol’ thing. I’s thinkin’ that’s a lack a sex. Probly why you post ’bout sex Pat. ‘Cause you’s not getting any.
Note the deliberate misspellings Pat.
Ol’ Bee is sure trying hard to play the role.
Note the use of “‘”
I think we have a bingo!
:D
Hey pat ol’ kansas is in his basement with a heap buncha empty cheeto bags. He’d be powerful happy I’s thinkin’ to welcome a ol’ bag like you pat. Y’all should get in “teched.”
Yup Kansas.
It’ll buzz off.
Kansas, contrary to what you think you’ve never outsmarted me and I always can back up my statements with references. Unlike you I have a job so I don’t hang around the blog all day.
Econ 101:
Allow me to ask you – point-blank…..Were you violated as a child? Was your innocence plundered – demonically, systematically and steathily – by a member of the clergy? Not only that, did that clergyman’s superiors (not the Pope) behave in an even more satanic manner? If you can answer “yes” and/or “amen” to those questions, I shall defer to you – to a point.
Just so we’re clear here: I’m not indicting the late Pope John Paul II in these damnable crimes. The pontiff’s health began seriously declining long before many of us were aware of these offenses, and Rome, Italy is a helluva long way from the USofA.
I am not surprised at the sneering review you cited – it derived from a partisan publication. This publication has a right to its perceptions – just as I have a right to mine – just as you have the right to your faith.
Let me repeat – sometimes in life, there is a point of no return. As regards my former faith, I have reached that point. I am now referring to myself as a soul-seeking ex-Methodist, the church which baptized me and which I attended until the age of 18.
Confused? I don’t think so, sir. I too am a rape victim (as are many women – far more than you’d like to admit); however, it wasn’t a priest or clergyman who committed it. And for that I am profoundly grateful.
Unless you can say with authority that you’ve walked in our shoes in this regard – or that the disdainful reviewers of this book have done so as well – I shall stand by my disillusion.
By the way Doug, my Dad knew many folks in the Haysville and South Wichita with your surname. They are relatives, collateral, but still relatives.
Clintons foreign policy was pretty much the same as the Reagan, Bush, Bush foreign policy.
Everyone who served under Clinton’s 8 years served during a war, according to the VA.
lysis
First, I am not sure that a thread on the Middle East was the best place for us to discuss church issues.
Secondly, you are wrong to assume that I do not have a laundry list of complaints, against individual church leaders, just as you do.
However, I struggle to seperate myself from the trap of holding a group responsible for the actions of a single member.
Martin Luther once wrote a letter to Henry the 8th, for instance, telling the King of England that he did NOT have just cause to leave the Catholic Church.
In other words, even according to Luther, finding fault in one area of church behaviour does not grant personal absolution to do as we might wish, ourselves.
pat herron: If Hillary ever visits the Pope she’d be expected to cover her head and wear long sleeves etc., as did Maggie Thatcher and Queen of England. What’s your point?
econ101: Henny V111 was granted the title of “Defender of the Faith” by the Pope for denouncing Martin Luther, one of the titles the current Queen is still styled as. I never hear of Luther telling Henry to stay loyal to Rome…..that’s a new one. They died about a year of each other, by then both having left Rome.