NYTimes: With Troop Rise, Iraqi Detainees Soar in Number - The Vast Majority Are Inspired By Money

[Kadie]

With Troop Rise, Iraqi Detainees Soar in Number


By THOM SHANKER
Published: August 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The number of detainees held by the American-led military forces in Iraq has swelled by 50 percent under the troop increase ordered by President Bush, with the inmate population growing to 24,500 today from 16,000 in February, according to American military officers in Iraq.

snip...
Those statistics would seem to indicate that the main inspiration of the hard-core Sunni insurgency is no longer a desire to restore the old order — a movement that drew from former Baath Party members and security officials who had served under Mr. Hussein — and has become religious and ideological.

But the officers say an equally large number of Iraqi detainees say money is a significant reason they planted roadside bombs or shot at Iraqi and American-led forces.

“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.”

But the detention system itself often serves as a breeding ground for the insurgency and a training opportunity for those who, after they are released, may attack Iraqi or American-led forces, military officers say.

more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/world/middleeast/25detain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[WCGreen]

1. But they hate us for our freedom...

[Kagemusha]

2. So they're motivated by money, so are vulnerable to... ideology?

Tell me another one.

[Maq]

3. Sounds like Bushs' Army recruiting system

But the officers say an equally large number of Iraqi detainees say money is a significant reason they planted roadside bombs or shot at Iraqi and American-led forces.

((A large number of american new enlistees are motivated by Money. Re-enlistments are for large monetary bonuses))

“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.

((How angry these enlistees are, has not been reliably determined but they do not have good jobs or any job. Some have lost their job to foreign outsourcing or illegal immigrants))

“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.”
((Recruiting standards have been lowered especially in the area of illiteracy))

But the detention system itself often serves as a breeding ground for the insurgency and a training opportunity for those who, after they are released, may attack Iraqi or American-led forces, military officers say.

((Interestingly, the American Detention system which houses twenty-five percent of the total number of worldwide incarcerated individuals is a superb training ground for islamic or muslim thought. Many of these new converts could become homegrown terrorist))