US 'war on terror' backfiring, says thinktank

[autorank]

Source: The Guardian UKI

The US "war on terror" has backfired, strengthening extremists in Afghanistan and Somalia and turning them into legitimate political actors in the eyes of their local populations, a thinktank said today.

Snip

"The lack of strategic acumen present in the 'war on terror' in Somalia and Afghanistan is in fact enabling the spread of the insurgencies present throughout both countries," said Norine MacDonald QC, the council president.

"The US is the common denominator in both countries – instead of containing the extremist elements in Somalia and Afghanistan, US policies have facilitated the expansion of territory that al-Shabab and the Taliban have psychological control over."

Snip

As for Afghanistan, the Senlis Council said the resurgent Taliban provided a bleak example of how the US-led war on terror had failed there as well


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/23/usa.somalia

---

Isn't this typical for the Bush administration.

They get involved and make things worse.

[madeline_con]

1. " ...a thinktank said today."

News flash!

[autorank]

3. Just more grist for the mill. Thinking people said this ahead of time.

But I'll take a reminder anytime.

[autorank]

19. Interesting phrase...

...what does a thinktank look like when it speaks?

Preferably, I'd like to see Tank Girl weigh in.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, autorank.

[autorank]

4. Welcome!

Thinking people knew this ahead of time, like us right!:)!

Actually, Susan Lindauer said this ahead of time:

American Cassandra

Above all, you must realize that if you go ahead with this invasion, Osama bin Laden will triumph, rising from his grave or seclusion. His network will be swollen with fresh recruits, and other charismatic individuals will seek to build upon his model, multiplying those networks. And the United States will have delivered the death blow to itself. Using your own act of war, Osama and his cohort will irrevocably divide the hearts and minds of the Arab Street from moderate governments in Islamic countries that have been holding back the tide. Power to the people, what we call “democracy,” will secure the rise of fundamentalists. Susan Lindauer’s last letter to Andrew Card, January 6, 2003*

[SpiralHawk]

5. "D'oh, we think we are, um, doing a heckuva job." - Commander AWOL & republicon homelanders

[balantz]

6. This is what they wanted. More terror.

Now they can justify more war with their manufactured terror.

And look how many are dead or suffering thus far because of it.

[MadMaddie]

9. Their war profiteering buddies are making a killing...they don't

care about casualties or the turmoil they have caused the world.

Well the Nazi's thought they got away with their crimes...they are still being hunted down...jsut sayin...

[guruoo]

10. Exactly.

[autorank]

15. They're frightened that wasn't just another screw up by the PT B ... we'll find out

that they rely only on scams, false flags, and baloney. How about those neocons. They rode the
invincible Soviet Union wave until the union collapsed before their very eyes. Couldn't wait
for the opportunity to jump back in with the war on a word. It's backfiring...no kidding. Who is
the master of disaster now - the figures below show it clearly.

[msongs]

7. the bush/cheney WAR on america is doing very well, however nt

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. USA isn't having a war on Terror - it's a war OF terror, trying to make the World fear the USA

.
.
.

But that ain't working either.

More in the world now have less fear and respect for the USA than it did prior to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

USA "lost it",

period.

[autorank]

16. We need to go for the big chill .. look inward. But I've got a ? for you.

What's the deal with US and Canadian troops now authorized for duty in either country under
certain conditions. That's too strange.

[bdamomma]

25. we will get our a$$es kicked no country is going to take this anymore.

[Liberal Gramma]

11. In other news, water is wet.

[truedelphi]

22. And like everything else, they keep watering down the

Water - someone on DU said her's smells vaguely like Scotch.

[msedano]

12. US foreign policy has the consistency and integrity of wet shit

but at least it's consistent.

From the article:

Against this grim backdrop, the Senlis Council, in its 79-page report, directly accused the US of undermining reconciliation efforts by backing the hardline president, Abdullahi Yusuf, instead of the more moderate prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein.

According to the security thinktank, the US government in February disrupted negotiations with opposition parties - including hardline Islamists - by exerting pressure on the prime minister to exclude certain groups and individuals from a reconciliation process, particularly those on a US list of designated terror suspects.

Jimmy Carter goes to Palestine to talk to the elected representatives of Palestinians and the State Department is on him like white on Rice for mucking with our policy of not talking to anyone who could resolve problems. Shithead in the Oval Orifice thinks he's Santa Claus; he's made a list and checked it twice and knows who's naughty and nice, even if they've been democratically elected.

i await January 2009 with a whimper.

[autorank]

17. Ahoy .. So true about Carter

What are the fools going to do, pull his passport. This is his finest moment in the service of
intellectual honesty, rationality, and peace. Imagine talking to people who are a key to the peace
process? How bizarre is that? In the mean time Miss Thing is threatening to wipe out 61 million
people just to get a few votes; although I'm wondering how many mass murderers there are out there
who actually show up to vote?

[Up2Late]

13. Gee, ya think? But it was always such a good idea. Next thing you'll know, we'll hear...

...the PC/Mac commercials with John Hodgman are beginning to have a negative backlash!

Oops, too late: <http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/23/mac_users/>

[autorank]

20. Hmmm...

"A new marketing study has found Mac owners tend to think they're more extraordinary than the average Joe." Does this mean Mac users are developing a Mac version of American "exceptionalism?" Are they going to invade my home and office to my notebooks? Maybe I could get an exemption for being a Mac user from '84 through '01? Will you vouch for me;)

:hi:

[sakabatou]

14. Well, gee, took you guys this long?

[autorank]

18. Probably a warning to Brown not to go down the same old path again

It's a British firm where the news is even more passe or maybe they are just updating data.

I'll take a study like this a day, though. It's all good.

[Supersedeas]

29. we are talking about people who find Condi's arguments convincing

[trusty elf]

21. Gosh, that's quite a revelation!

The "war on terror" would be more aptly called the "moron error".

[bdamomma]

26. love the graphic and so appropriate.

[trusty elf]

27. Thanks Alyce!

:hi:

[truedelphi]

23. K & R'ed n/t

[Doctor_J]

24. The think tank is known as the Dunn-Hagler group, known casually as

DUH

[moggie]

28. I can't wait to read this thinktank's next report

"Excretory habits of genus Ursus: a forestry perspective"

[LynnTheDem]

30. But the US "war on drugs" has been such a smashing success!

I just don't get how being the biggest terrorists on the block makes us lose our war on an emotion!

Good fucking grief. OF COURSE it's fucking backfiring! They pay these people to come up with the fucking obvious???!

[Ian David]

31. Is this "Think Tank" called "The Captain Obvious Group"? n/t

[OKthatsIT]

32. "The War on Terror is a Fraud"

OK kiddies...now you say it, "The War on Terror is a Fraud".

Now...was that so hard?

[bluesmail]

33. as planned and executed, pun intended.

[samsingh]

34. we knew this long ago

[autorank]

35. That's right...the thinktanks are the "derier guard"

[sutz12]

36. George Bush is like a large intestine...

Everything he touches turns to shit.

:shrug:

[dysfunctional press]

37. 9/11 was a crime, NOT an "act of war", and should have been treated as a crime.

nt