Baathist Deadenders

New Pravda doesn't come out and say Team Bush flat out lies--that'd just make things more uncomfortable at the next upscale soiree--but it's hard to miss one point of this article--the sheer number of insurgent groups makes a mockery of blanket administration dismissals of "baathist deadenders, jihadists, and foreigners" when describing an insurgency that shows no sign of diminishing:

Here is a small sampling of the insurgent groups that have claimed responsibility for attacks on Americans and Iraqis in the last few months:

Supporters of the Sunni People. The Men's Faith Brigade. The Islamic Anger. Al Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigade. The Tawid Lions of Abdullah ibn al Zobeir. While some of them, like the Suicide Brigade, claim an affiliation with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Al Qaeda claims them, others say they have acted alone or under the guidance of another group.

While on Wednesday President Bush promised nothing less than "complete victory" over the Iraqi insurgency, the apparent proliferation of militant groups offers perhaps the best explanation as to why the insurgency has been so hard to destroy.

The Bush administration has long maintained, and Mr. Bush reiterated in his speech Wednesday, that the insurgency comprises three elements: disaffected Sunni Arabs, or "rejectionists"; former Hussein government loyalists; and foreign-born terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Iraqi and American officials in Iraq say the single most important fact about the insurgency is that it consists not of a few groups but of dozens, possibly as many as 100. And it is not, as often depicted, a coherent organization whose members dutifully carry out orders from above but a far-flung collection of smaller groups that often act on their own or come together for a single attack, the officials say. Each is believed to have its own leader and is free to act on its own.

Interesting that the media, at least here in the west, is finally getting around to naming some of the insurgent groups--I doubt the groups themselves have been insisting on "deep background" after carrying out their actions. Additionally, the volume of groups also makes a mockery of the "flypaper" strategy extolled by so many wingnuts--your flypaper looks a lot more like a honeypot, i.e., a golden opportunity for honing skills that I for one goddamn hope aren't used HERE. Way to go, wingnuts.

I just wish they'd clean up the mess THEY made, instead of engaging in their usual game of whine and blame.