I have to like the title of this article: CIA says Iraq is now a terrorist training ground. Hello, McFly, as opposed to when Saddam was terrorist-in-chief of the place?
The lead sentance grabs your attention: "The CIA believes the Iraq insurgency poses an international threat and may produce better-trained Islamic terrorists than the 1980s Afghanistan war that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Wednesday."
At least you only have to go to paragraph 3 to see when this international threat will materialize: "Once the insurgency ends, Islamic militants are likely to disperse as highly organized battle-hardened combatants capable of operating throughout the Arab-speaking world and in other regions including Europe."
That's right, after the terrorists get beat in Iraq, then they'll disperse and be an interational threat. Um, so we have the Islamic radicals that went to Afganistan in the 80's and fought for the winning side being less lethal than the Islamic radicals who are going to Iraq and fighting for the losing side? Am I missing something here? There were a lot of Islamic radicals after Afganistan because they were on the winning team; more were attracted following the war there to be Islamic radicals because they were on the winning team, and then they followed it up with successful actions in Chechnya. Losing two wars, in Afganistan and in Iraq, is not a winning strategy for long term success.
I also have trouble with "Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic militants similar to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan two decades ago and Bosnia in the 1990s, U.S. officials say." Again, the difference is that the militants are dying in far greater numbers and proportions in Iraq than they did in Afganistan two decades ago - it's not more than a magnet, it's a mass graveyard for militants.
Once the insurgency ends, the Islamic milititants are most likely dead; it will be much harder to recruit people to be suicide bombers as a mass murderer in the name of Allah will have lost a lot of zest. And let's not forget the flip side to this -- there will be two countries, Afganistan and Iraq, that will have anti-terrorist forces that will be well motivated and working with us to continue to beat forces they've already won victories over. If I had to pick, I'd pick the winners over the losers as allies in this long struggle. But I guess that doesn't make good copy.
A tip of the hat to Take Back The News for the article.
