Terrorists in Iraq--Native or Not?

George Bush invaded Iraq, among other reasons, to liberate the Iraqis. The President unquestionably succeeded, and Iraqi politics is maturing into something both free and normal. And, of course, live TV coverage of the Iraq vote inspired democratic movements throughout the region.

Still, many Euros and American lefties support the terrorists, rooting -- perhaps in private -- against the United States. Publicly, they insist the terrorists are Iraqis defending their country--and legitimately battling an occupying power. This always seemed a post-hoc rationalization to justify the ingrained, neo-Marxist, impulse to "blame America first."

Now, even that debating point is DOA. Writing in The Weekly Standard, Stephen Schwartz points to new evidence, based on fatalities:

The Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel, a highly reputable and reliable think-tank, has published a paper titled "Arab volunteers killed in Iraq: an Analysis," available at e-prism.org. Authored by Dr. Reuven Paz, the paper analyzes the origins of 154 Arab jihadists killed in Iraq in the last six months, whose names have been posted on Islamist websites.

Dr. Paz's study sorted, "by their countries of origin, the 154 Arabs killed in Iraq in the past six months":

• Saudi Arabia: 94 (61%)
• Syria: 16 (10.4%)
• Iraq: 13 (8.4%)
• Kuwait: 11 (7.1%)
• Jordan: 4 (2.6%)
• Lebanon: 3 (one was living in Denmark) (1.9%)
• Libya: 2 (1.3%)
• Algeria: 2 (1.3%)
• Morocco: 2 (one was living in Spain) (1.3%)
• Yemen: 2 (1.3%)
• Tunisia: 2 (1.3%)
• Palestine: 1 (0.6%)
• Dubai: 1 (0.6%)
• Sudan: 1 (living in Saudi Arabia) (0.6%)

Obviously, the vast majority of terrorists in Iraq are anything but Iraqi:

[Note] the relatively small number of Iraqis involved in the fighting on behalf of the Zarqawi group. Furthermore, it seems that out of several thousands of Iraqis killed in the battles of Fallujah, only a negligible small number of Iraqis were members of Zarqawi’s group. The vast majority appears to have been members of other groups, including Saddam Hussein loyalists, or civilians.

The small number of Iraqis associated with Zarqawi may suggest that Zarqawi’s group, Tawhid wal-Jihad—now also known as Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia—is in fact composed mostly of non- Iraqi Arab volunteers, such as Zarqawi himself, as well as his late chief cleric—Abu Anas al-Shami—both of whom are Jordanians.

The foreign fighters' origin also suggests a regional effort:

The list also shows that the majority of the Arab Jihadi volunteers in Iraq originate from countries that are bordering Iraq, namely—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Syria—due to the ease with which Jihadists from these countries can infiltrate Iraq. Among those killed the number of Syrians, 16, is of note. This high number of Islamists from Syria killed in Iraq must have been noticed by the Syrian authorities, and should raise their concern. The Syrian government, as part of its established policy of supporting the remains of the Iraqi Baath Party, seemed to have turned a blind eye to the number of Syrian Jihadi volunteers that cross the border into Iraq.

Let us add, from this day forward, the notion that terrorists are Iraqis miffed about any occupation to the list of falsehoods "up with which I will not put."

(via GOP Bloggers)