You know - there's different ways to "compare" things. Obviously, the majority of our troops there are not targetting innocent civilians or chopping off heads - while perhaps the majority of these foreign terrorists don't mind such things. So you're right, there is no comparison. Except.... Let's take a common foreign Jihadist. He comes to Iraq, his sunni boss gives him a belt of explosives and tells him to go wait in line at the police recruiting station, and so kills a dozen would-be shiite policemen. He's attacking his 'enemy'. And let's also look at a pilot from the US air force - who drops a bomb in fallujah or some remote point - because over the radio, his boss tells him there's confirmed bad guys there. But besides the bad guys, the bad guys' kids are obliterated as well. Why would everyday Iraqis see much difference? Not me - not you - but everyday Iraqis. Drop our amerocentric viewpoint and try to see through their eyes. To them, both are foreigners who cause death and destruction to their country. The only way to win is for us to convince them that we are the good guys - that there is a difference. But the blackouts still happen, the water is often unsafe, the police are still corrupt and brutal. I'm sure there's some bright Iraqi kid out there making $$$ selling "I supported the invasion and all I got was this lousy purple finger". Because what have we given them (sunnis specifically)? Democracy? That's a long way away. And which is stronger - their hunger for democracy - or their xenophobic attitudes of 'get these foreign killers out of my country now'?
Why aren't we securing the border again? If we don't have enough people to do so, could we try convincing other countries that aren't big on sending troops that they could at least help with border security? Won't help with the ones already there but it could stem the flow some. Then again we don't bother guarding our own borders so why bother with someone else's...
Middle East is not an ethnic group but Arabs sure as hell are. There is definitely a common identity and current borders of Arab countries reflect nothing more than colonial policy of England, France, Spain and other European countries. In any case, my point is that this thread is implying that people of Iraq, some 75% of whom are Arab, would consider Arab insurgents from other country as foreign as they would, say, Swedes. Now, I'm not gonna go and make assumptions about how much an average Iraqi identifies with fellow Arabs around the world, but considering the feelings in Arab world about Palestinians and their issues, I'd say that there's a pretty good chance that they don't agree with Ian on the "foreigness" of these people.
Who's going to pick the strawbery for you if the border is tight. We need people do the trash pickup and drive the taxies too. Cheap labor. Only when these cheap labor demand education, healthcare, and wage benefits then we will tell them go back to Mexico.