SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (news - web sites), Aug. 11 In much the same way as the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (news - web sites) stirred an earlier generation of young Muslims determined to fight the infidel, the American presence in Iraq is prompting a rising tide of Muslim militants to slip into the country to fight the foreign occupier, Iraqi officials and others say.

Recent intelligence suggests the militants are well organized. One returning group of fighters from the militant Ansar al-Islam organization captured in the Kurdish region two weeks ago consisted of five Iraqis, a Palestinian and a Tunisian.

It seems that every neo-caveman in the Muslim world has found a new playground. Wether the actual Iraqi's in question want them there or not doesn't seem to matter very much. I don't want us to lose anymore people, I don't want the Iraqi's to fail in the rebuilding, but I wonder? We are far better able to kill them when they come at us, when they concentrate in one area. As miserable as this is, if they weren't moving into Iraq, where else would they be ploting and attacking? Speaking only for myself, if I was still in, I would much rather fight them there, then worry that my wife and kids were in danger here. So overall, this actually may be to our best advantage out of a list of poor choices.