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."
Early in 2003 Schwarzkopf made a public statement saying he would prefer to give the U.N. more time and to build a larger coalition...nothing more as Chamberlain buff here implies.
And since that public statement, Schwarzkopf has not made any others regarding opposition to the war.
Perhaps you should change your handle to "Neville Chamberlain Buff"
Afghanistan was a fifteenth-rate power with a $3.6 Billion GNP. They produced 19 guys with boxcutters who killed 3,000 of us in 90 minutes and knocked our $7 Trillion economy for a loop.
The 19th Century called. They want their armed conflict paradigm back.
Yeah. They never would have bothered us if we hadn't done that whole pesky Iraq War thing! /sarcasm
Oh, and one other point: How can they "now admit" this when they never made the assertion in the first place? You've been reading to much Leftist drivel.
Why are they willing to die for Iraq and not for Afghanistan?
I suspect the General has moved to our side on this, or at worst he knows better than to undermine the troops in the field by proclaiming their mission to be a failure when they are actually succeeding brilliantly. Some folks could take a lesson...
So, if someone tells a lie, and AP reports it, that makes the lie more true? If the IISS concludes that the sky is green, and the aP files a report, will you post them both and nnod your head at the great wisdom they've exhibited?
Although he was a fool, I do believe Chamberlain did have some personal honor. I'm beginning to think this guy is more along the lines of Lord Haw Haw.
Ooh, there is napalm all over that target!
I agree with your assessment of Chamberlain. He was wrong, but well-intentioned and patriotic, whereas today's Chamberlains are often America-phobes, Christo-phobes and UN-Worshippers. He was man enough to admit his mistakes too, IIRC.
Lord Haw Haw...
For example, 3,000 people who were at the WTC on 911 can no-longer exercise that right.
Had the right to keep and bear arms existed on those planes, those 3,000 people might still be alive.
Actually,Doughty,throughout the years,we have agreed about most things. hehehehehehehehhe
Wow, didn't know you were such a live one.
Oh I go off the reservation once in a while. It's cathartic. Take care. ;) D1
Yes,you do,but then,so do I. hehehehehe
Thank you. As Napoleon said, "Audace, audace, toujours audace!"
Ignoring the fact that Saddam's feydayeen ltc Ahmed Hikmat Shakir was a planner and trainer of the 9-11 attacks and instead posting rubbish propaganda from a left wing creative outfit makes you complicit with the terrorist enemy's efforts. The jihadi's aren't strengthened by their loss of a freindly country. They're strengthened by collecting allies, such as yourself.
I think you are really a closet Bushbot. You seem to be suggesting that Bush has been so successful in degrading the offensive capabilites of Al Qaeda that in order to win re-election, he now needs to pretend that the threat he extirpated vis a vis the US is still there. Does that about sum it up?
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