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."
LOL. Sorry I didn't read down the thread. Good 'un!
When I go down to Hollywood and counterprotest these folks, it's about all I can do keep telling myself it's a free nation where folks like them can congregate and trash the greatest nation the world has ever known.
It's my considered opinion that they would be a whole lot better off, and certainly a lot safer if they left our nation and took up residence in what they consider to be the best naion on earth.
If ours isn't it for them, then they should get the hell out!
When they start talking about our troops getting killed, or hoping the U.S. loses, or celebrating our difficulties in Iraq, things go to a different level for me.
I'm not a real big believer in tolerance on some issues, and the day is coming when these folks will be rightly judged to be the terrorist underground on our soil I believe them to be.
I agree that that is the response that the appeasers among us desire.
Not me.
"Saddam's got to go," Schwarzkopf said Wednesday morning. "He's a monster in every single way you can think of and with the linkage to the terrorists, it's scary what in fact could be done." - Gen. Schwarzkopf, Jan 2003
The only mistake regarding Iraq is people that haven't the tools to understand why we attacked it.
Worse...a Canuk She
I don't see how you contain yourself anymore; I have lost all patience with idiots; you're a better person than I am.
So I was told.
When Islam takes the last city, you will be given the tender choice of a prayer rug or a coffin.
(I intend for my coffin to be lain upon the bodies of countless savages in filthy nightshirts.)
That is why they are parasites. They feed off their hosts , suck them dry and then move on. They are incapable of creation only destruction.
I'll be right beside you.
Thank you for posting that.
She/he claimed to NOT be a Canadian and to have NEVER even been there,last night.
Let's ask her/him;though,of course,the person can always lie.
I think Churchillbuff would be a great assett to D.U. It's obvious they don't care to back the War on Terror so we don't need them here. I may have to face that ilk on the street corner, but I don't have to tollerate them here.
And I claimed to be the King of Tasmania a week ago. LOL! Claims mean absolutely NOTHING on the net. That's just how it is. Same with chest-thumping keyboard threats. If the person's a dork, then S/H/IT is a dork.
Unfortunately,she/he isn't the only anti-war poster here.
You're welcome
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