Egyptians In Iraq: 2-3 million
Ritzy is reporting that there are 2-3 million egyptians living in Iraq right now, the majority of which did not report to the embassey since the occupation. She is wondering the same thing that I am: how many of those have joined the "insurgency" or are training there to inflict their own kind of "insurgency" against the Infidel-US-agent current Egyptian government? I am personally wondering how many came back home already, cause the local terrorists sure seem to be using Iraqi techniques.
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 8/26/2005 02:46:00 AM
8 Comments:
SM, maybe those Egyptians in Iraq are not able to make it to the borders or something that's why they're stuck there? why think of them as 3 million 'terrorists' why? also SM maybe some are dead and some are mistreated and some are injured etc... why the pessimism yabni?
PS do you like my new logo ;)
I recall the woman who was doing the interviews from the first election protest there in Egypt, one of the women who said she was groped by the thugs... she said she went to Iraq to fight the Americans, and then returned to Egypt after some amount of time. I remember it because it made me think that maybe the US was right not to take the side of the protesters, and that maybe there was more to her story than met the eye.
Highlander, I think you are right that most of the Egyptians in Iraq are not "terrorists" or, even, insurgents. Many of them are there doing construction projects and other work, including working as trasnlators. Some number of them are terrorists, though. And no, Egyptians fighting in Iraq are NOT insurgents! An insurgency is an internal resistance, by definition! Foreigners cannot be insurgents :)
That doesn't make them terrorists though... it's the methods that make somebody a terrorist. Maybe "foreign fighter" is the best generic term? It's still unlawful war fighting though. Egypt is not at war with the United States. Therefore, it's illegal for Egyptian nationals to make war on US forces - the US military is NOT a legitimate target for egyptians.
On second thought... they are terrorists. Hmmm... glad I cleared that up for myself, I never really thought about it before I started on this post!
But, I don't think the number of Egyptians in Iraq to fight is so large. I mean, if there were 3 MILLION Egyptians in Iraq trying to kill 120,000 US troops, we'd have a hell of a lot more than 1800 casualties right now!
Ok, where did i say that all of the egyptians there are potential terrorists or joining the insurgency? That would be stupid. Ain;t no way in hell even 10% of that number could be involved. However, 1%? or 0.1%? That's 3000 egyptians right there, and you have to admit that that would be a likely and reasonable number. Historically we are emotional and reactionary people, and given the atrocities happening there it would be very easy for some of them to believe that they should be fighting on the side of the arabs against the "invaders". Given that the majority of the immigrants come from the lower classes who would be fooled by the notion of martyring themselves against the Infidel agent governement, I can see them taking the logical next step against the government in Egypt in the future.
Mind you, while 2000-3000 egyptians out of 2-3 million may not be bad, that's still 2000-3000 egyptians too many. And All you need is 20 of them to raise all kinds of hell in here.
It is a very brief article but from what I understand most of the Egyptians are there since before the war, married and settled. Which makes me wonder why on earth did they want to go there to live under Saddam?
I wonder that myself ritzy, maybe under Saddam was not the hell it was portrayed to be ? after all if you were careful about politics the rest was fine you know ..apart from the sanction which made life standards considerable deteriorate.
leaving out the mil. intelligency forces and the Uday's habit of pulling girls from the streets into his care for rape and cig. burns and being tortured and killed b/c you live in a village where someone may or not have said or done something or loosing a football game and get killed and not being able to leave the country --- well, that kind of stuff that probably made life quite pleasant for the ordinary people.
economic opportunities and a desparate need to get away from their own mil. intell. sec might also be reasons to consider
the question is open though, I really don't know why so many went there
since it was published in Al Ahram, it is probably true
ritzy it's obvious that they left Egypt for economic reasons etc... so it figures that opportunities must have been BETTER for those Egyptians under SADDAM then under MUBARAK.
I reiterate my earlier statement, if you kept a low profile politically you were ok in Saddam country and if you're male you won't be 'pretty' enough to be kidnapped a la Uday style ...believe me the majority of those 2-3 million egyptians are still alive otherwise you would have heard of their death .
We must admit my dear that despite the suffering people were working , living , reproducing etc... in Iraq and feeling 'slightly' more secure than now where they have more chance to die violently....
Plus mil intelligence tactics etc..are the same in Iraq and Egypt ( no big difference right) , just ask all those who came out of prison and what they are doing to those poor bedouins in Sinai ...
Still I may be totally in error here ...we are just asking questions and theorising.
I find it hard to believe that ten per cent of the population of Iraq are Egyptians. That would also be something like one third of the Sunnis. I think that estimate is just a wild guess and probably ten times too high.
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