Of course the war is a huge recruiting tool for terrorists. But if it wasn't Iraq, it would be Afghanistan or Lebanon or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What is the alternative? Isolationism? Does the leaker here have an axe to grind? The CIA has been in virtual revolt from the administration for years.
Here are a few other interesting tidbits from the article: --- An NIE drawn up in the fall of 2002 concluded that Iraq had "continued its weapons of mass destruction [WMD] programs," possessed stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and "probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade." All of those judgments, which provided the political and national security underpinnings for the Iraq invasion, turned out to be false. --- So the record of the NIE isn't exactly stellar, is that right? And the most interesting part of the article: --- But "a really big hole" in the U.S. strategy, a second counterterrorism official said, "is that we focus on the terrorists and very little on how they are created. If you looked at all the resources of the U.S. government, we spent 85, 90 percent on current terrorists, not on how people are radicalized." --- This conclusion has nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with the fact that we are in a world-wide conflict with Islamic extremism. Does anyone think the Islamic extremists will fold up their tents and go home when we leave Iraq? Or that they will stop recruiting? No, they will just shift the focus of their message. On 9/24/06, Gruss wrote: > > Even more output from the overburdened News Most Of Us Already Knew > Department: > > > Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight > > By Karen DeYoung > Washington Post Staff Writer > Sunday, September 24, 2006; Page A01 > > The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent > Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential > terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster > than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. > intelligence analysts have concluded. > > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092301130.html > > -- --------------- Robert Munn www.funkymojo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:215924 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
