Terrorism and the Republican Way

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092806J.shtml

Terrorism and the Republican Way
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 28 September 2006

A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.

- Ronald Reagan, March 4, 1987

Former CIA Director James Woolsey was on CNN Tuesday evening to road-test a new talking point regarding Iraq and the so-called "War on Terror." The emergence of portions of a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has served to blast all the old Iraq talking points to flinders.

The talking point that has failed most spectacularly because of the NIE is one you've heard a million times: better to have them all in one place than spread out, "over there" instead of "over here."

So much for that. Iraq is now the training ground for global terrorism, according to the new NIE, and the extremism fueling and funding that training process has an ever-swelling cadre of fighters to call on. Those who conduct attacks against our troops in Iraq have proven themselves to be effective fighters, simply because they know the ground far better than our soldiers do, because they were born there. Those who conduct these attacks are learning the tricks of the trade, and can now spread their fight into the wider world.

In short, the war in Iraq creates both more terrorism and more terrorists. Reports beyond the NIE bear this out. The Congressional Research Service's report, titled "Trends in Terrorism: 2006," summarizes and discusses trends in terrorism identified in recent analyses by the State Department, the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), and independent analysts.

Page CRS-7 of this report notes, "In 2005, the NCTC lists roughly 40,000 individuals wounded or killed in terrorist incidents as compared to 9,300 the previous year and in 2003. Reported terror-related deaths in 2005 numbered 14,602 as compared to 1,907 deaths in 2004 and 625 in 2003. The report placed the number of total reported terrorist attacks in 2005 at 11,111 as compared to 3,168 in 2004 and 208 in 2003. Foiled attacks are not included in the data reported."

Interesting numbers, no? 4,271 people were killed in terrorist attacks during 2003, and in the very next year, 9,300 were killed. The following year, 2005, saw 40,000 people killed in terrorist attacks. Between 2003 and 2005, the number of deaths from terrorism rose by orders of magnitude. The Iraq invasion was undertaken in the early spring of 2003. This is both simple math and straightforward statistics.

Ergo, a new talking point is needed, and Woolsey was on to roll it out. The new talking point, according to Woolsey, essentially boils down to, "Yeah, Iraq is fueling extremism but we've been at war with Islamojihadofascistoist extremism since 1979. So, therefore, this isn't new." This was an astonishingly facile sidestep, one that requires a dose of Republican history to frame the issue properly.

...more...

[sweetheart]

1. good

[WilliamPitt]

2. Not to change the subject but

[LSK]

3. you have not had great timing posting your articles lately

But I see what you are trying to do and you get a K&R from me.

[WilliamPitt]

4. If I waited for a moment when DUers weren't up in arms

or celebrating something or predicting doom or whatever, I'd have about seven posts total, all of them put up in the middle of the night. ;)

[LSK]

7. and in the lounge

;)

[Shakespeare]

9. No, they're here in the middle of the night, too.

Screaming about the goddamn trees in their way and wondering where the hell the forest is.

[paulk]

5. good stuff, Mr. Pitt

you should post this again in a couple of days.

[EFerrari]

6. NIcely done. We need this reminder. I've been thinking about

the Rayguns/Junior comparison since that thread the other day. The more you think about it the more you see that Junior's crew took Reagan's policies and took them viral.

[YankeyMCC]

8. Ah the classic problem of the left

cluttering up the story with facts and being all knowledgeablely (sp?) about history.

:sarcasm:

<end sarasm>

Nice piece Mr Pitt.

[WilliamPitt]

10. One last kick

[LSK]

11. ok

kick

[WilliamPitt]

12. .