An excellent point

Joe Carter reminds us that at least part of the violence in Iraq is due to the fact that Saddam released the entire criminal population of Iraq just before the invasion. How much of the violence occurring there is from ordinary criminal activity from these convicts and how much of it is due to actual insurgency is hard to tell. All the more so because, as Joe notes, no one in the media or in government appears to have addressed this issue. At least not publicly.