Who are we fighting in Iraq?

I think that there is a misconception among the American people that the US military is mostly fighting disgruntled Iraqis.  In a conference call this morning, Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner pointed out some important points for consideration. 

1.  Coalition and Iraqi forces have killed or captured hundreds of al Qaeda members in Iraq over the past two months, including 26 of the terror network’s “high-value” leaders.

2.  There is an ongoing resistance from many external groups:  Al Qaeda, proxy groups like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- or Quds force,  their Lebanese Hezbollah surrogates, and other foreign fighters that have been drawn to Iraq.

3.  Of the 26 terrorist leaders slain or seized during May and June, 11 were emirs -- city or local al Qaeda leaders -- and five of their terrorist unit commanders. Seven are facilitators who smuggled foreigner fighters, weapons and money into Iraq; and three were car bomb-network chiefs. 

4. Roughly 23,000 tips have been fed to coalition forces by local residents.  "Support councils” have emerged in the Salah ad Din and Diyala provinces, and cooperation from tribal sheiks in Anbar province continues to increase.

5.  A recently captured terrorist recruit stated that about 60 to 80 foreigners per month are lured to Iraq by al Qaeda, with 70 percent gaining entry through Syria.  “Between 80 and 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are being carried out by foreign-born al Qaeda terrorists,” he said. “And in the last six months, some 4,000 Iraqis have been killed or injured by the al Qaeda suicide attacks.”

Al Qaeda leaders have very publically declared Iraq their central front, and have been very effective in convincing the American public that we cannot defeat them.  Al Qaeda senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a recent video articulated the vision of these terrorists of wanting to create a new Caliphate, or Islamic-based theocracy which would feature their extreme and distorted vision of Islam which forbids the most basic personal freedoms.   

Yes, sectarian violence piting Iraqi against Iraqi does exist, but it is generally believed to be fueled by these outside influences.  If these outside influences could be nuetralized, the military community is very confident that stability could be attained.

I think what is going on in Iraq is horrible and I think that things could have and should have been handled better.  But I think it is also important that the American people realize that our chief enemy in Iraq is not disgruntled Iraqis, but external extremists that are intent of destroying our way of life around the world.

So Gather-ites, without taking this article as another opportunity for Bush-bashing, do you think that this external interference is the largest reason why we are struggling in Iraq?