Posted on 05/26/2004 12:43:21 AM PDT by churchillbuff
LONDON : The US-led war on Iraq, far from countering terrorism, has helped revitalise the Al-Qaeda terror network, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank warned.
The London-based body said in its annual Strategic Survey 2003/2004 that the deadly train bombings in Madrid in March, the worst terror strike in Europe for more than a decade, showed that Osama Bin Laden's terror network "had fully reconstituted".
It also predicted the Islamic group would step up its anti-Western attacks, possibly even resorting to weapons of mass destruction and targeting Americans, Europeans and Israelis while continuing to support insurgents opposing the US-led occupation of Iraq.
The IISS pointed to devastating blasts in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in 2003 and 2004 as further evidence that anti-US sentiment had soared since the Iraq war.
"In counter-terrorism terms, the intervention has arguably focused the energies and resources of al-Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counter-terrorism coalition that appeared so formidable following the Afghanistan intervention in late 2001," the report said.
However, since the war it said that arms proliferation and state-sponsored terrorism has dwindled, with Libya giving up its unconventional weapons programs and Syria becoming "less provocative."
Stalinist North Korea's secret nuclear programme was somehow contained thanks to a negotiating process while Iran agreed to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency over its nuclear activities, the IISS said.
But another legacy of the war was what the IISS termed a highly questionable recourse to pre-emptive strikes as a means of counter-proliferation, as well as "the uses and abuses of intelligence as a basis for military action."
The IISS said the United States, which has dominated world affairs since the end of the Cold War, had failed to understand that Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks were "a violent reaction to America's pre-eminence" and it urged the superpower to temper "the appearance of American unilateralism".
It warned that Washington would have a hard time restoring order in embattled Iraq and stressed that the conflict had brought a political split between the United States and its continental European allies, leaving Britain stuck in the middle.
The survey additionally forecast a possible attention shift away from terrorism, Middle Eastern problems and weapons proliferation should North Korea opt for a more aggressive stance, a humanitarian disaster hit Africa or undesirable regime-changes "produce abrupt and serious security challenges".
The United States will not manage to tackle all of the above single-handedly, warned the think-tank, raising a question mark over Europe's ability to break away from "strategic arthritis."
We do have such brave cowards here.
Yes, the right to keep and bear arms does threaten terrorism.
However, terrorism can threaten the right to keep and bear arms. For example, 3,000 people who were at the WTC on 911 can no-longer exercise that right.
No, in fact it is the media that has revitalized the terrorist network of Osama if anyone has. Acting like our President is the biggest enemy of this nation has most likely made him more than ready to prove them wrong. Clinton's refusal to acknowledge his acts of terror as just that made him escalate the violence each time.(according to statements made by him and his minions at the time)
Piles of them;unfortunately.
Oh, and thank you for giving me a perfect spot to put my mighty and much feared...
Questions of Ultimate Iraqi Wisdom!
Finish one or more of the following sentences and show us the boffo supra-genius reasoning that lead you to it:
1. Iraq was not a terrorist state, and my case for this assertion is...
2. Even though Iraq harbored, trained and funded terrorists, it was not a legitimate target because...
3. We should not be fighting the War on Terror at all because...
4. Fewer than 1,000 total military casualties in a war that started with the slaughter of 3,000 noncombatants on our home soil is a huge problem because...
5. If we leave terrorist states up and running, I foresee the next major terrorist attack will be prevented by...
On September 12th of '01, did you believe Al-Qaida will hit us again with a major attack in the next six months? That was 32 months ago. We're due for an attack, but we were due for an attack on September 12th and 13th, and on October 11th, and they never came. The reason they are regrouping now (if these are good reports) has little to do with Iraq and much to do with it taking them 32 months to regroup after we cut them into pieces in Afghanistan.
Are you really dense enough to think that finding bin Laden is just a simple matter of manpower? Or a simple matter of not being in Iraq? When we pull the last troops out of Baghdad, will he magically appear in a cell in Gitmo? Will we send a division from Iraq to Afghanistan and it will be just enough guys to find the cave?
Also note that you can't have it both ways: An Al-Qaida that can recruit a trillion jihadis while jihadis are being killed in droves far from the best targets is also well-run enough to keep it's leadership hidden. An Al-Qaeda that stupidly hands us Osama unless we're involved in Iraq is going to be fumblin' mumblin' and stumblin'. You can't have the easy Osama and the mighty al-Qaeda. One or the other.
The IISS pointed to the Soviet Union as a bunch of nice guys and Ronald Reagan as a warmongering nutcase in the 80s, IIRC.
Check the pattern: In 2001 Al-Qaida delivered a kiloton of combat power into Lower Manhattan and killed 3,000 American noncombatants in 90 minutes. In 2004, the only noncombatants they're able to hit are Muslims and contractors who volunteered to go to a war zone thousands of miles removed from the homeland.
Bottom line: IISS is full of crap, and if you've been a freeper since '98, you should have been able to figure that out.
For sure.
I think the chances that we only killed 2,000 Al-Qaida in Afghanistan are about zip, but let's say it's true. If Roosevelt had come out and said, "Hey, we killed 4% of the Japanese troops, no need to worry about sabotuers or submarines any more," would he have been hauled to the loony bin? You bet!
Percentage of reduction in Al-Qaida according to that figure: 4%
Percentage by year of terror attacks on U.S. soil:
2001: 100%
2002: 0%
2003: 0%
2004: 0%
Percentage reduction in terrorists harbored by Hussein regime: 100%
Percentage reduction in terrorists trained by Hussein regime: 100%
Percentage reduction in terrorists funded by Hussein regime: 100%
Nope, no disadvantage to the terrorists there...
I never thought I'd live to see the day that the spirit of Neville Chamberlain came back to sully an honorable man like Sir Winston Churchill.
What WMDs?
Sorry, can't have it both ways!
Thanks. Did I ever tell you how wise I think you are? Heh heh heh.
Take care.
Oh yes, those Al-Qaida guys, they only try hard to kill americans when we invade a country. They never hate us at all otherwise.
BTW, do you realize what a rhetorical question is?
LOL. I was going to ping you to this thread if you hadn't found it on your own. You're like a cat toying with a wounded rat with this guy. ;)
I just can't image how someone can be so abscessed to post this kind of drivel day after day.
Could that be the origin of his Freepername? That he is the ghost of Neville chamberlain, and Chamberlain always had a suppressed desire to see Churchill in the buff?
Oh, thanks also for the thought. If you do see one of his anti-war rants that I somehow miss pleace ping me. I wouldn't want Chamberlainbuff there to think I don't like him.
Sure, just like draining George Soros' bank account would be a distraction from getting Bush elected.
He was defending one of his anti-war threads quoting Churchill left and right, and proclaiming how Churchill only fought when it was necessary...and would never get involved in a senseless war.
Apparently he skipped over the section of the book dealing with Churchill's disastrous and bloody fool idea during WWI.
When I pointed it out to him he suddenly had to go somewhere.
Call me up when Schwarzkopf and Clancy announce that there were no terrorists trained, harbored or funded by the Hussein regime.
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