Insurgent objectives

I know this is one of those really dumb thoughts that occur to me from time to time, but if you were an "Iraqi insurgent" (in quotes because I don't see too many actual Iraqis insurging) and you really wanted the "evil" Americans to leave the country, wouldn't you stop killing so many civilians in senseless suicide bombings? Here's my thinking: The U.S. is under tremendous political pressure to withdraw from Iraq. The only thing that's keeping the U.S. (meaning 160,000 American soldiers) in the country is the fact that it is so unstable, ie that suicide bombings by the so-called insurgents happen on a daily basis. If it was just a matter of the Sunnis and Shiites being pissed off at each other and tearing down each others political posters, you can bet the Americans would get out of the country as fast as possible. But now it's a test of manhood for the U.S. and its military and civilian leadership, so they can't get out. In other words, the only thing standing in the way of the Americans withdrawing from Iraq is the stupid and senseless bombings by the so-called insurgents. Whoever these people are motivating the suicide bombers must be the dumbest politicians in the history of mankind.

Comments

[david grady]

Well, clearly reason isn't what the suicide bombers themselves are deciding with. If their bosses are, they're either really fanatical, or deeply cynical. If the first, they can't act rationally. If the second, they're probably so cynical they don't want the americans to leave.

[Pete Dailey]

There's two groups of insurgents. Home-grown militias (Suni, Shia, and Kurd), and foreign jihadies. The shia and kurd militias aren't "insurging" because they're in power. (There's some other word for what the Shia are doing to the Sunis). The Sunis can, should, and probably are being politically co-opted at the moment. The other category, the foreign jihadies don't really want the Americans to leave. It's a co-dependency. The notion that violence is keeping America engaged, or embroiled, or bogged down or whatever euphemism you want to use, is THE objective of the foreign jihadies.