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Sunday, February 20, 2005

The War to Create Terrorism

From the WSWS:
Both CIA Director Goss and Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, conceded that the war in Iraq has strengthened Al Qaeda and associated Islamic terrorist groups by inflaming anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East.

“Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-US jihadists,” Goss told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “These jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorism,” he added. “They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries.”

Goss, a former Republican congressman, tried to draw back from the obvious implications of this statement, declaring, “The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists.”

But DIA Director Jacoby dispensed with this political spin, admitting that the war in Iraq is fomenting anti-American sentiment. “Overwhelming majorities in Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia believe the US has a negative policy toward the Arab world,” he said.

He added that the Iraq insurgency has grown “in size and complexity over the past year,” and he provided figures to back up this assessment. Iraqis opposed to the US occupation were mounting an average of 60 attacks per day, more than double the rate a year ago. On January 30, Iraq’s election day, more than 300 attacks were carried out, despite the nationwide shutdown of transportation and the all-out mobilization of US troops and Iraqi police.

The statements by Goss and Jacoby constitute a crushing refutation of the claims that the Bush administration invaded and occupied Iraq in order to protect the American people from the threat of terrorism. The invasion, and the accompanying atrocities, murder and torture by American forces, have dramatically increased the hatred of America throughout the Middle East and in Muslim countries generally, boosting the public support and recruitment for reactionary terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.
The WSWS concludes that "the US invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terrorism." I'd go farther than that. While perhaps not the main reason (cough-oil), increasing the risk of terrorism is most likely seen as a benefit of the war by the Bushies. After all, look at all the political capital they reaped from just one big terror attack. Dick Cheney said the "war on terror" would probably last fifty years. He didn't seem to be at all upset by his prediction. War is the most effective means known to the wealthy elite to consolidate and expand their wealth and power. Endless war means endless misery for most of the world's people, but for the Bushies and their friends it means endless prosperity and power.