The War on Terror Is the Leading Cause of Terrorism (Independent UK)

[marmar]

via AlterNet:


The War on Terror Is the Leading Cause of Terrorism

By Kim Sengupta and Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UK. Posted March 1, 2007.



It's official: A new report shows that the U.S. has made the world more dangerous -- not just for Americans, but for everyone.

Innocent people across the world are now paying the price of the "Iraq effect," with the loss of hundreds of lives directly linked to the invasion and occupation by American and British forces.

An authoritative U.S. study of terrorist attacks after the invasion in 2003 contradicts the repeated denials of George Bush and Tony Blair that the war is not to blame for an upsurge in fundamentalist violence worldwide. The research is said to be the first to attempt to measure the "Iraq effect" on global terrorism.

It found that the number killed in jihadist attacks around the world has risen dramatically since the Iraq war began in March 2003. The study compared the period between 11 September 2001 and the invasion of Iraq with the period since the invasion. The count -- excluding the Arab-Israel conflict -- shows the number of deaths due to terrorism rose from 729 to 5,420. As well as strikes in Europe, attacks have also increased in Chechnya and Kashmir since the invasion. The research was carried out by the Centre on Law and Security at the NYU Foundation for Mother Jones magazine.

Iraq was the catalyst for a ferocious fundamentalist backlash, according to the study, which says that the number of those killed by Islamists within Iraq rose from seven to 3,122. Afghanistan, invaded by US and British forces in direct response to the September 11 attacks, saw a rise from very few before 2003 to 802 since then. In the Chechen conflict, the toll rose from 234 to 497. In the Kashmir region, as well as India and Pakistan, the total rose from 182 to 489, and in Europe from none to 297.

Two years after declaring "mission accomplished" in Iraq President Bush insisted: "If we were not fighting and destroying the enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/48620/

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

1. Thanks for this, marmar!

I heard something very similar on an Air America program this past week...that "global terrorism" at least indirectly related to Al Qaeda has risen seven-fold since the Iraq invasion began. The guest on the show talked about how "the big bad USA" has given them a great recruiting tool, plus an excellent training-ground in which to sharpen their skills before heading out to cause mischief all over the world. He also suggested that at this point the "they'll follow us home" scare tactics are true, no matter what we do in Iraq. Thanks a lot, W & Co! Thanks so much for this! x(