Tuesday, January 04, 2005
How many Insurgents?
"I think the resistance is bigger than the U.S. military in Iraq,"According to Iraqi Intelligence, maybe 200,000, of which 40,000 are a hard core.
The spy chief also questioned the success of the November campaign to retake Fallujah, which U.S. forces have hailed as a major victory against the resistance.
"What we have now is an empty city almost destroyed ... and most of the insurgents are free. They have gone either to Mosul or to Baghdad or other areas."
That's obviously not a good sign. No matter how many insurgents are killed or captured, the numbers are swelling. Desperation will do that. I wonder how many foreign terrorists have joined the ranks? I recall an anecdote I read about the Soviet-Afghan War, where it seemed that for every jihadi that was killed, 10 more seemed to take his place. They are seeking death, so it's hard to discourage them.
