NY Times: How America Created a Terrorist Haven

[gristy]

What a friggin' disaster. The neocon's unwavering assurance to Americans that the U.S. can bring peace and "democracy" to Iraq took a big hit yesterday. This absolute ARROGANCE of bushco is just beyond me. Many think that it will be the economy that will be Bushco's downfall next year. I've changed my mind today. Iraq is out of control, the U.S. is powerless to regain it, and this alone will bring the end of bush next year. A tanked economy on top of it will then make it a landslide.

And America will be left to clean up the neocons' mess.

By JESSICA STERN
NY Times

Yesterday's bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was the latest evidence that America has taken a country that was not a terrorist threat and turned it into one.

<snip>

For example, the American commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, has described the almost daily attacks on his troops as guerrilla campaigns carried out by Baathist remnants with little public support. Yet an increasing number of Iraqis disagree: they believe that the attacks are being carried out by organized forces — motivated by nationalism, Islam and revenge — that feed off public unhappiness.

<snip>

As bad as the situation inside Iraq may be, the effect that the war has had on terrorist recruitment around the globe may be even more worrisome. Even before the coalition troops invaded, a senior United States counterterrorism official told reporters that "an American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups." Intelligence officials in the United States, Europe and Africa say that the recruits they are seeing now are younger than in the past. Television images of American soldiers and tanks in Baghdad are deeply humiliating to Muslims,...

<snip>

It would also help if we involved more troops from other countries, to make clear that the war wasn't an American plot to steal Iraq's oil and denigrate Islam, as the extremists argue.

The goal of creating a better Iraq is a noble one, but a first step will be making sure that ordinary Iraqis find America's ideals and assistance more appealing than Al Qaeda's.

Jessica Stern, a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is author of "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/opinion/20STER.html

[gristy]

1. shameless kick

:kick:

[Terran]

2. dupe

Please go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=6829

Thanks,

Dirk - DU Mod

[arcane1]

3. I hate to say that the anti-war movement told him so

but we did


But what do we know? We're just a "focus group"

Focus on this, George