Biden: More Foreigners Fight U.S. in Iraq

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

More foreign fighters than ever are crossing Iraq's porous borders to fight U.S. and Iraqi forces, and a growing number are from U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia, a Senate Democrat said Thursday.

"The mix is changing," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., citing conversations last week in Iraq with Marine and Army generals. "Now, the mix is increasingly more Islamist crossing the border ... and a lot of them are Saudis. It presents a different profile" that is harder for U.S. forces to confront.

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Part of the Bush administration strategy in Iraq is to improve living conditions and security for ordinary Iraqis and thereby reduce support for the homegrown insurgency. That calculation won't work with foreign fighters, Biden said.

"If you turn on lights, get the air conditioning running and clean up the sewage, that ain't going to have any impact on the jihadist coming across from Saudi Arabia with a bomb strapped on his stomach," said Biden, who has made five trips to Iraq since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein a little more than two years ago.

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Asked about estimates that Saudis make up 40 percent of suicide bombers recruited to Iraq by the Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saudi Arabia differs from other nations that may export fighters to Iraq because it is also fighting al-Qaida insurgents on its own territory.

"There's no question but that there have been a number of Saudis involved that have been captured throughout the entire activity," Rumsfeld said.

Biden said a U.S. troop pullout now would be disastrous, but he accused the Bush administration of glossing over the magnitude of the problems and underestimating the time it will take to fix them.

"There is a total disconnect from what I've seen ... being on the ground and what I hear when I come back home," Biden said.

Sen Biden, I don't know what would happen if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq, right now. Look what happen after the fall of Saigon. Vietnam, began rebuilding itself. I know that the people of Iraq are more fractional then in Vietnam, but would the Iraqis simply go about, rebuilding their our country? Or, with a U.S. pull out, would a civil war break out? With Saddams legacy, I think the later to be true, a civil war may break out. If a civl war happened, then would the surrounding countries help stablize Iraq? Who really knows.

A bad sign also, is that the Iraqi insurgency are getting fresh ground troups. the U.S. Army and Marines are not. The Army, now has relaxed its requirements for new officers. The has said it will increase sign on bonuses for new recruits. These are not good signs for winning the war in Iraq.

Semper Fi