Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat

The opening of this article, which I recommend reading in full:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

This is something us operatives have known for a few years now, but it's nice to see the information reaching the masses (though I doubt you'll see this particular finding ever mentioned on FOX news). The administration will counter with, "Yeah, but we haven't had any attacks on American soil." This is true, and much of the upper tiers of the organized groups like Al Quaeda have been decimated, but the sheer number of those who wish us harm is undeniably greater than it was pre-9/11. So while their ability to perpetrate large attacks away from the Middle East is apparently diminished (for the moment), it is by no means a sign that we have done, or are doing, things right.

The administration could have handled this better if they had taken a much more psychology-oriented tack in this procedure; trying to understand what makes people terrorists and especially, Anti-American terrorists. In all of Bin Laden's writings and addresses, you will never hear him actually attacking the American way of life, contrary to popular opinion. You won't hear him railing against Hollywood or Sex in the City or our culture's promiscuity when it comes to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. When he talks of the U.S., he talks about our support for Israel, he talks about our presence in the 'Land of the Two Holy Places' (what he calls Saudi Arabia, because he sees the House of Saud as corrupt and apostatical), he talks about our killing of innocents all over the Middle East through our sanctions on Iraq and other controversial U.S. military actions, he talks about our apparent disdain for Islam in general. But the main thing that he hates, and that many moderate Muslims disagree with, is having an 'infidel' presence in the Holy Land, and this is something our increased military presence in that area will only exacerbate.