President Bush has increased terrorism
A study on global terrorism has shown a sevenfold increase since President Bush attacked Iraq.
by Editor-in-Chief on 2007-02-21
"The Iraq Effect" By Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank Research fellows at the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law, is a study using information from the world’s premier database on global terrorism. The results are being published for the first time by Mother Jones, the news and investigative magazine, as part of a broader "Iraq 101" package in the magazine’s March/April 2007 issue.
"If we were not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people." So said President Bush on November 30, 2005, refining his earlier call to "bring them on." Jihadist terrorists, the administration’s argument went, would be drawn to Iraq like moths to a flame, and would perish there rather than wreak havoc elsewhere in the world.

The study shows that the Iraq War has generated a stunning sevenfold increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and thousands of civilian lives lost; even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one-third.

They are not making the argument that without the Iraq War, jihadist terrorism would not exist, but the study shows that the Iraq conflict has greatly increased the spread of the Al Qaeda ideological virus, as shown by a rising number of terrorist attacks in the past three years from London to Kabul, and from Madrid to the Red Sea.

Also undermining the argument that Al Qaeda and like-minded groups are being distracted from plotting against Western targets are the dangerous, anti-American plots that have arisen since the start of the Iraq War. Jihadist terrorists have attacked key American allies since the Iraq conflict began, mounting multiple bombings in London that killed 52 in July 2005, and attacks in Madrid in 2004 that killed 191. Shehzad Tanweer, one of the London bombers, stated in his videotaped suicide "will," "What have you witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq." There have been six jihadist attacks on the home soil of the United States’ NATO allies (including Turkey) in the period after the invasion of Iraq, whereas there were none in the 18 months following 9/11; and, of course, the plan uncovered in London in August 2006 to smuggle liquid explosives onto U.S. airliners, had it succeeded, would have killed thousands.

Al Qaeda has not let the Iraq War distract it from targeting the United States and her allies. In a January 19, 2006 audiotape, Osama bin Laden himself refuted President Bush’s argument that Iraq had distracted and diverted Al Qaeda: "The reality shows that that the war against America and its allies has not remained limited to Iraq, as he claims, but rather, that Iraq has become a source and attraction and recruitment of qualified people.... As for the delay in similar [terrorist] operations in America, [the] operations are being prepared, and you will witness them, in your own land, as soon as preparations are complete."

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

militarily speaking iraq is perfect look at its location... right next door to iran and syria unfortunatly the white house and congress are blundering a perfectly strategic setup... if they would put a real general in charge and get their filthy money and power happy hands out of this mess the islamo fascist terroist threat could be reduced to ashes in 2 years or less... we need an alexander the great or a julius ceaser in charge...

Now that's a nice objective NEWS outfit.....

Childish, deluded, myopic, cowardly logic for all to see....
Yup we should just leave radical Islamists alone....all our troubles would simply vanish...because it's our entire fault...we are the bad guys....
WOW!
frthnk is correct in suggesting that we need a more concerted effort militarily; led by a focused, resourceful General without the absurd political hamstringing which Washington DC is so adept at.....Time to Butch up!
The only way to gain the peace is to kill our self avowed enemies!
The more brutal our campaign is, the sooner there will be peace!

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If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

Al Qaeda has not let the Iraq War distract it from targeting the United States and her allies. In a January 19, 2006 audiotape, Osama bin Laden himself refuted President Bush’s argument that Iraq had distracted and diverted Al "Qaeda: "The reality shows that that the war against America and its allies has not remained limited to Iraq, as he claims, but rather, that Iraq has become a source and attraction and recruitment of qualified people.... As for the delay in similar [terrorist] operations in America, [the] operations are being prepared, and you will witness them, in your own land, as soon as preparations are complete."

So, here we have a leftist propaganda "news" outlet quoting bin Laden himself making the claim that this is a WAR ... while at the same time, the Left continues to insist that WE are the invaders. Go figure!

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

IF you get the gist of the piece, it was that Iraq has not made us safer. That is pretty factual I'd say. Lombast the left all you want, but facts is facts!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Yeah, what can you expect from a warmongering Neocon. 80% of the world thinks the USAs foriegn policy is wrong, so I suppose you consider them to be the enemy, man woman and child. So do you propose to kill them all, 80% of the worlds population, so your right wing leaders can run the planet. I propose a less bloody solution. Kill the 20% of warmongering Neocons and just general assholes, and maybe the 80% can live in peace, You never know, it just might work! Have a nice Day!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Med, you really must intentionally misconstrue the meaning of my point.
I reiterate.......We kill those who have announced to the world that they intend upon attempting to kill us....our self-avowed enemies.....

I never made a statement remotely resembling your flight of fancy!

Med you have quite a vivid imagination.

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If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

Not really, just taking your mentality to it's final conclusion. A. 80% of the world thinks we are wrong. B. killing those that oppose us is the Christian neoconic thing to do. C. kill 80% of the worlds population so we, the intelligent right wing plutocrats can get on with saving the world and ridding it of all the axis' of evil. Doesn't that make perfect sense. It is you that proposes to kill all our enemys, why stop with only the most extreme. They will become more extreme with time. It's kinda like killing a child of your enemies because he will grow up to be an enemy, or killing women enemies because they can bear children, so hell, just kill them all, no use talking to them or trying to start a dialog, just kill them before they kill you. Amazing mentality, fucking amazing!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

you are way off the rocker by now med... not trying to down you but you take it too far... talk to all the people you want and keep talking as they cut your head off... reality check time... if i was the president i would close this fucking country off and see what the world did without this country if they don't like us so much... we have the best military in the world and the ability to produce everything we need in this country... let them come over here and do something about it... just let the rest of the world slowly rot away which it would execpt for a couple of other countries and then we can re open our borders and try again... get real man... i'm tired of seeing these stupid ass conversations arguing back and forth when there are more important things to worry about... you see what diplomatic talk has gotten us... 80 percent of the world hating us... yah good job diplomatic talks... we used to be feared and that kept these crazy countries in check because they were afraid we WOULD GO OVER TO THEIR COUNTRY and kill every single one of them... not anymore now they think they can walk all over us... oh hey guess what they are... imagine that... yah diplomatic discussion yah UN yah democrats... Good fucking job... I'm sick of this shit...