The Iraq Insurgency

Salon News, The Iraq insurgency for beginners

This article provided me with much background on insurgency. The article consisted on an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an Iraqi insurgency expert. It says that there is a difference between Shiite militias and actual insurgency, the insurgents violence is directed at everyone, whereas the Shiite militia is directed at the Sunnis. There is also a difference between insurgency and terrorism, terrorists perform suicide bombings, which have no military objective. Insurgents are generally groups opposed to foreign occupancy (the U.S.).

I also learned that the estimated number of total insurgents is in the ten thousands. "al-Qaeda has about 15,000 people, probably more", this is also only one major group out of 10. There is also a bit of a standoff between the Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia because of their equal number of members.

A final fact that I learned is that people are joining al-Qaeda because it is a "sense of adventure, wanting to be in the big movement of history that's happening right now."They see themselves as knights of the round table. That is also how al-Qaeda is sells itself, "Are you a chivalrous knight or a coward?"

Questions I had from this text:
Are the Shiite militia against solely Sunnis?
Who are the major 10 groups of insurgents?
How many people join al-Qaeda, or other insurgent groups each day?