The excellent New York Times report echoes a TRC analysis in these pages from October 5, 2005 (WAR Report), which suggested that the diffusion and proliferation, amoebic organizational constellation, and entrepreneurial operational nature of the groups and cells within the Iraqi insurgency are the critical factors undergirding the insurgency?s overall durability, resiliency, and potency. In a similar vein as the NYTimes report, the October 5 WAR Report went on to suggest that in addition to the ballast of hardcore fighters associated with al-Qaeda , Abu Mussab al Zarqawi?s jihadist corps , and certain high-level former Hussein military and intelligence commanders,

the wider insurgent milieu remains a relatively decentralized constellation of Islamist militants, Iraqi nationalist fighters, disempowered Sunni insurgents, and former regime loyalists. This network seems to have taken on rather amoebic dynamics. Groups conduct relatively independent and entrepreneurial attacks with ad hoc operational collaborations out of necessity or common advantage, all oriented toward the common strategic goal of ousting the foreign presence and the Iraqi government.