terrorism

Is Iraq a Cause of Terrorism?
By Daniel G. Jennings
Is the US military adventure in Iraq, a cause of terrorism? Opponents of the war have long claimed that American occupation of Iraq would inspire devastating new terror attacks against the US and its allies.
The answer is yes and no, yes the Iraq War is a rallying cry for Jihad - even incoming CIA Director Porter Goss echoed these sentiments in his first appearance before Congress in that capacity on Feb. 17. The war is used as a justification for the crimes of extreme Islamic terrorists and a recruiting aid.
It must be pointed out, though that there was no US occupation of Iraq on Sept. 11, 2001. Without the American occupation of Iraq Bin Laden was still able to attract thousands of recruits to his camps in Afghanistan and inspire them to mount a deadly suicide attack against the USA.
If there were no war in Iraq, the terrorists would find some other pretext for their war against us. Our support for Israel and Saudi Arabia, our decadent culture or just the fact that most Americans don’t subscribe their version of Islam would be enough to inspire the fanatics.
The real roots of Islamic terrorism lie in the psychology of certain Moslem men who can’t or won’t adapt to the modern world not in any event in the real world not in the political or economic situation anywhere in the world. These men are driven to terrorism by their desire for power, glory and fame and their personal inadequacies. Their war is not with the real United States or its policies but with an imaginary great Satan that exists only in their comic book fantasies. Only defeat in the real world at the hands of America and its allies will snap these fools back to reality.
So is Iraq a front in the war on terror and should we worry about terrorists from Iraq? Yes, Iraq is an important front in the Great Terror War, Porter Goss has noted that the experience and training terrorists get in this war could enhance their ability to mount attacks elsewhere. Goss is afraid that when the terrorists loose their war in Iraq they’ll move elsewhere and use the skills they learned there to mount new attacks.
The more terrorists we kill or capture in Iraq will reduce the capacity of the Jihad forces to wage war on us. The war in Iraq also diverts terrorists and their resources away from attacks elsewhere such as the US. Yes, we could see a few thousand American deaths in Iraq but I would rather see thousands of Americans dead in Iraq than tens of thousands dead on our soil from a nuclear or biological attack.
An American pull out from Iraq at this time would enable terrorists to operate openly in that country and set up bases from which to attack us. Using Iraq’s oil wealth and infrastructure they could manufacture weapons of mass destruction to turn against us. They could set up camps and schools to train a new generation of highly proficient terrorists dedicated to our destruction. Look what Bin Laden was able to achieve with the limited resources available in Afghanistan.
A successful Iraqi government on the other hand could keep a lid on terrorism and offer the people of the Middle East a real alternative to the Jihad stupidity. It would also deprive terrorists and American peace activists of a pretext for war and isolationism.