It's official: A new report shows that the U.S. has made the world more dangerous -- not just for Americans, but for everyone.
An authoritative U.S. study of terrorist attacks after the invasion in 2003 contradicts the repeated denials of George Bush and Tony Blair that the war is not to blame for an upsurge in fundamentalist violence worldwide. The research is said to be the first to attempt to measure the "Iraq effect" on global terrorism....."
The Iraq Effect: New Study Finds 600% Rise in Terrorism Since US Invasion of Iraq (Video)
"PAUL CRUICKSHANK: Just to give you an example, in the Arab world there’s been a 445% increase in jihadist terrorist attacks since the Iraq war, and there’s been a 783% increase in fatalities. There have been twelve attacks in Saudi Arabia since the war in Iraq; in the period before that we considered, there were none. There has been a wave of attacks in Egypt. In confessions of those perpetrators, of people who attacked those targets in the Red Sea areas in the last few years, they’ve said, “The war in Iraq was our main motivating factor. We wanted to punish Westerners for the actions over there.”
AMY GOODMAN: Paul Cruickshank, you write that there are, just in 2006 alone, 118 suicide attacks in Afghanistan, more than in the entire history of the country. What relation do you think those attacks have to the war in Iraq?
PAUL CRUICKSHANK: Well, that's an excellent question. You know, certainly the suicide terrorism in Afghanistan has gone through the roof. And if you look at when the Taliban terrorist campaign starts in Afghanistan, it really gets going in September 2003. And, you know, this isn’t in 2001, it’s not in 2002, when US troops were already there. They start attacking civilian entities, Afghan police entities in September 2003. That’s after the US invasion of Iraq.
And what basically happened is that they were inspired in part by Iraqi jihadists launching a campaign there. Now, the tactic that worked remarkably well for Iraqi jihadists attacking civilians, attacking the US there was suicide bombing. And so, you know, you have Afghan internet sites based in Peshawar, Pakistan, which say, “Look, guys, we need to copy the tactics that you’re using in Iraq. We need to export these to Afghanistan.” And so, it was a very consciously thought out strategy to use suicide attacks -- also remarkably that a higher increase of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, too. And so, what we found is the Iraq war, that the jihadist experience in Iraq of fighting the best army in the history of the world, the US Army, has sort of allowed them to pioneer new tactics, which are being exported elsewhere. There has been evidence that Taliban fighters and Pakistani militants, as well, they’ve even traveled to Iraq to get what one Pakistani journalist observed as on-the-job training: going to train with Zarqawi, coming back to Afghanistan and using their terrorism savoir-faire to launch new attacks there."
We all know the pre-war intelligence was fabricated/cherry picked/manipulated in order for George to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. Only 120 US soldiers had lost their lives before Bush announced Mission Accomplished and 'the end to major combat operations in Iraq' May 1, 2003. Five years later, and 3,000 more American LIVES, and it seems like we have made no progress with democracy in the middle east.
We all know how this must end.
An authoritative U.S. study of terrorist attacks after the invasion in 2003 contradicts the repeated denials of George Bush and Tony Blair that the war is not to blame for an upsurge in fundamentalist violence worldwide. The research is said to be the first to attempt to measure the "Iraq effect" on global terrorism....."
The Iraq Effect: New Study Finds 600% Rise in Terrorism Since US Invasion of Iraq (Video)
"PAUL CRUICKSHANK: Just to give you an example, in the Arab world there’s been a 445% increase in jihadist terrorist attacks since the Iraq war, and there’s been a 783% increase in fatalities. There have been twelve attacks in Saudi Arabia since the war in Iraq; in the period before that we considered, there were none. There has been a wave of attacks in Egypt. In confessions of those perpetrators, of people who attacked those targets in the Red Sea areas in the last few years, they’ve said, “The war in Iraq was our main motivating factor. We wanted to punish Westerners for the actions over there.”
AMY GOODMAN: Paul Cruickshank, you write that there are, just in 2006 alone, 118 suicide attacks in Afghanistan, more than in the entire history of the country. What relation do you think those attacks have to the war in Iraq?
PAUL CRUICKSHANK: Well, that's an excellent question. You know, certainly the suicide terrorism in Afghanistan has gone through the roof. And if you look at when the Taliban terrorist campaign starts in Afghanistan, it really gets going in September 2003. And, you know, this isn’t in 2001, it’s not in 2002, when US troops were already there. They start attacking civilian entities, Afghan police entities in September 2003. That’s after the US invasion of Iraq.
And what basically happened is that they were inspired in part by Iraqi jihadists launching a campaign there. Now, the tactic that worked remarkably well for Iraqi jihadists attacking civilians, attacking the US there was suicide bombing. And so, you know, you have Afghan internet sites based in Peshawar, Pakistan, which say, “Look, guys, we need to copy the tactics that you’re using in Iraq. We need to export these to Afghanistan.” And so, it was a very consciously thought out strategy to use suicide attacks -- also remarkably that a higher increase of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, too. And so, what we found is the Iraq war, that the jihadist experience in Iraq of fighting the best army in the history of the world, the US Army, has sort of allowed them to pioneer new tactics, which are being exported elsewhere. There has been evidence that Taliban fighters and Pakistani militants, as well, they’ve even traveled to Iraq to get what one Pakistani journalist observed as on-the-job training: going to train with Zarqawi, coming back to Afghanistan and using their terrorism savoir-faire to launch new attacks there."
We all know the pre-war intelligence was fabricated/cherry picked/manipulated in order for George to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. Only 120 US soldiers had lost their lives before Bush announced Mission Accomplished and 'the end to major combat operations in Iraq' May 1, 2003. Five years later, and 3,000 more American LIVES, and it seems like we have made no progress with democracy in the middle east.
We all know how this must end.
Last edited by LawJik (2007-03-02 09:45:13)