Sunday, September 24, 2006

Well played, Georgie.

For most of us in the reality-based world this is stating the obvious, but it's good to see it confirmed by the Bush administration's own intelligence analysts. According to a report issued today, analysts have concluded that Iraq is now the "primary recruitment vehicle for violent islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of terrorists around the world, whose numbers are increasing faster than the US and its allies are eliminating the threat". The report cites the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent insurgency as a "leading inspiration" for new extremist networks. It concludes that rather than improve the counterterrorism situation, the war in Iraq has made it worse.

So anyone who still thinks the war in Iraq is good for the so-called "war on terrorism" should ask themselves (to paraphrase Ronald Reagan): are you safer than you were 4 years ago? US intelligence says "no".