The suggestion that they came to Iraq to loot was a low-probability idea, but not out of the question. You must have missed the reports of US troops finding huge caches of currency squirreled away all over Iraq. Saddam's regime, like all such corrupt regimes, would take comfort in having ready cash available, and would value cash for its anonymity. Cash is more secure than a Swiss bank account these days; post 9/11 the US has made considerable inroads in weakening the anonymity of Swiss bank accounts as portrayed in so many movies.

Which brings us to the "terrorist" / "foreign fighter" distinction. These fellows were brought to Iraq from four different countries and provided with cash and arms. As you say, >> After the US invasion of Iraq, the call went out for martyrs to rush to Iraq to "defend a Muslim land against the infidel invaders". << So they came to Iraq to kill Americans.

Fine, don't call them terrorists. But this isn't some indigenous liberation movement.

...(later)...

Instead of sending gullible cannon fodder to attack the US and Europe, they're now sending cannon fodder against Iraq.

So many assumptions. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt by calling them unconscious assumptions.

Were they "brought" or "sent"? Or did they travel to Iraq in answer to the call to "liberate" Iraq? How do you know they were members of a formal terrorist organization and traveled under orders? How do you know that they were "supplied" with weapons; the Middle East is already awash in weapons. The invitations read "BYOG&A"--bring your own guns and ammo.

Think for a minute about the nature of the call: "Help liberate Muslim territory from the infidel invaders!". Iraq, in that sense, is part of their extended homeland. If they really were answering that call, they were indeed part of an "indigenous" liberation movement. Their country of origin is about as significant as an American's state of origin with regard to defending the nation to which they've given their allegiance.

Al Qaeda has pretty much vacated Afghanistan. And the big fish have left Pakistan, especially after Khalid Shiek Mohammed was caught. Most of al Qaeda's top leadership is in Iran right now. But al Qaeda's center of gravity is in Saudi Arabia.

What?? There is such a preponderance of reporting about the continued presence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and NW Pakistan that I'm justified in challenging you to prove that assertion. Are you just trying to engage in semantic gymnastics by separating NW Pakistan from Afghanistan? I have heard the reports that AQ's top leadership is now in Iran, so I'll grant you that one. But what does it really mean to say that Al Qaeda's "center of gravity is in Saudi Arabia"? Their hearts and souls? Their source of funds? Surely you don't mean actual numbers of Al Qaeda operatives. We went after them in Afghanistan because that was their tangible and physical "center of gravity". They are still there.

Instead of sending gullible cannon fodder to attack the US and Europe, they're now sending cannon fodder against Iraq. We've got them reacting to us, not the other way around. That's a victory right there.

Only if each and every one of your unfounded assumptions proves coincidentally true. You're just repeating Bush's latest spin trying to put a happy face on the war; he did not plan it this way. Don't confuse after-the-fact spin and wishful thinking with strategic brilliance.

The genuine risk is that we'll be so focused on fighting these so-called terrorists in Iraq that the real terrorists might in fact have a freer hand elsewhere.

Ask yourself this common-sense question: Bush publicly announced that his "strategy" is to lure all the terrorists to the killing fields of Iraq so we can finish them off at a time and place of our choosing, at our convenience. Do you think they somehow missed that speech? Why would they obediently march off to their own executions?

The obvious answer to that is why I think that those 80 "foreign fighters" are just gullible cannon fodder and not members of a formal terrorist organization. They're aiding the real terrorists by pinning us down in Iraq, and freeing the real terrorists to act elsewhere. They're unwitting auxilliaries, at most.