Some Numbers Regarding Detainees in Iraq
Daniel. thanks………..
(Courtesy of New York Times)
Look at these numbers carefully from Iraq. This tells you about detainees in Iraq since the start of the surge. Note the significance of what they say:
Nearly 85 percent of the detainees in custody are Sunni Arabs, the minority faction in Iraq that ruled the country under the government of Saddam Hussein; the other detainees are Shiites, the officers say.
Got that? 85% of detainees are Sunni Arabs. Not Shi’ite Iranians.
Military officers said that of the Sunni detainees, about 1,800 claim allegiance to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is foreign-led. About 6,000 more identify themselves as takfiris, or Muslims who believe some other Muslims are not true believers. Such believers view Shiite Muslims as heretics.
Got that, they hate Shi’ite Muslims. There are no Sunnis in Iran (except for a really tiny minority—but not the ones in power—or the Iranians we accuse of messing around in Iraq)
“Interestingly, we’ve found that the vast majority are not inspired by jihad or hate for the coalition or Iraqi government — the vast majority are inspired by money,” said Capt. John Fleming of the Navy, a spokesman for the multinational forces’ detainee operations. The men are paid by insurgent leaders. “The primary motivator is economic — they’re angry men because they don’t have jobs,” he said. “The detainee population is overwhelmingly illiterate and unemployed. Extremists have been very successful at spreading their ideology to economically strapped Iraqis with little to no formal education.”
They don’t attack us because they hate us. Got that? They attack us because they get paid.
Now, are you ready for the most significant numbers?
According to statistics supplied by the headquarters of Task Force 134, the American military unit in charge of detention operations in Iraq, there are about 280 detainees from countries other than Iraq. Of those, 55 are identified as Egyptian, 53 as Syrian, 37 as Saudi, 28 as Jordanian and 24 as Sudanese.
Look at those numbers carefully. Notice something strange? Let’s see. I see 55 Egyptians. I see 53 Syrians. I see 37 Saudis. I see 28 Jordanians. I see 24 Sudanese. Who is missing? Isn’t it interesting that the one nation we consider the scourge of the Middle East has absolutely zero of its people detained by Americans in Iraq? Where are the Iranians?
When it comes to the hard facts, the Bush administration is proven wrong again and again and again. They really do live in an alternate reality where the bad guy continuously shifts to whoever they choose, and not what the facts on the ground tell them.
Iran is not our enemy. However, if we are not careful, we may end up being theirs.
