Also in the news….Bears shit in the woods.
A re-cap:
Before the Iraq War, the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) stated that the war could increase, rather than decrease, the terror threat to the UK.
From: The Guardian
“On February 10 2003, a month before the onslaught on Iraq, Whitehall’s joint intelligence committee told Tony Blair that ‘al-Qaida and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq’ “
Then, back in July 2005, the well-respected Chatham House thinktank (aka The Royal Institute of International Affairs), published a report in which it concluded that the war against Iraq had damaged the counter-terrorism campaign, & boosted funding, training, & support for Al Qaeda.
BBC News story
PDF of the report
Well, as well as Chatham House, the Joint Intelligence Committee, MI6, the military, etc. all saying that the Iraq War has increased the risk of terrorism, and damaged, & distracted from, the actual war on terror, etc. etc., we now have…
US report says Iraq fuels terror
From the BBC story:
“The New York Times newspaper has published what it says are the findings of a classified US intelligence paper on the effects of the Iraq war.
The document reportedly blames the conflict for increasing the threat of terrorism and helping fuel Islamic radicalism worldwide.
Such a conclusion is at odds with the White House’s persistent claim that going to war has made the world safer.”
The report is a National Intelligence Estimate, based on the analysis of all 16 intelligence agencies within the US Intelligence Community.
Now Dubya has said he’ll declassify certain parts of it (presumably the bits that aren’t too embarassing for him).
Bush has also called his critics “naive” (pot, kettle, black) & has said “I think it’s a mistake for people to believe that going on the offence against people that want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe,”
Excuse me? But what has going on the offensive against people who want to harm the USA got to do with Iraq? Oh. Of course. The fuckwit still claims that the Iraq War is part of the War on Terror (or “The War Against Terror – T.W.A.T.”) & that Iraq had terrorist links etc.
Riiiiight….
Sorry Georgie, but our intelligence agencies, your own intelligence agencies, and your own Congress all agree that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 & Al Qaeda. Oh, & had no WMD either. So I fail to see how going to war with Iraq was an example of protecting the US (or UK) & making the world safer. Plus our intelligence agencies, your intelligence agencies, Chatham House & other experts, plus anyone with a brain, can all see that the war has in fact fucked things up, distracted & damaged the actual war on terror, increased the terror risk & threat, and aided Al Qaeda’s funding, recruitment & support. You should’ve concentrated on finishing the (justifiable) job in Afghanistan instead of going off on your quest to get rid of Saddam (cos he “tried to kill your daddy”).
Yes, Iraq is now part of the war on terror. But only because of the Iraq War turning it into one big jihad training camp & increasing the terror threat.