Richard Oppel, writing for the NYTimes, has a good background article on the uptick in the US military's adoption of global guerrilla theory called, "Iraq's Insurgency Runs on Stolen Oil Profits" March 16th, 2008. Choice quotes that depict guerrilla entrepreneurs:
...money, far more than jihadist ideology, is a crucial motivation for a majority of Sunni insurgents, according to American officers in some Sunni provinces...
"It has a great deal more to do with the economy than with ideology,' said one senior American military official, who said that studies of detainees in American custody found that about three-quarters were not committed to the jihadist ideology. "The vast majority have nothing to do with the caliphate and the central ideology of Al Qaeda.”
In Baiji, dozens of active insurgent groups feed off corruption from the refinery, said Lt. Ali Shakir, the commander of the paramilitary Iraqi police unit here. 'If I give you all the names, your hand is going to be tired” from writing them down, he said.Effects of systems disruption (a feedback loop that feeds the above):
Capt. Stephen Wright, who works at the refinery with Captain Da Silva, is concerned about whether there may be unseen problems looming, like the sort of fatigue that ruptured a propane unit in January. “If something happens to this refinery from neglect, you won’t have fuel for eight provinces,” he said, “and we’ll have 6,000 unemployed Sunnis, who are people we definitely don’t want unemployed.”