America’s self-inflicted war wounds

[babylonsister]

America’s self-inflicted war wounds

By Gideon Rachman

Published: September 10 2007 18:20 | Last updated: September 10 2007 18:20

The symbolism of getting General David Petraeus to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the anniversary of 9/11 appealed to the White House. It should not have. It is crass. General Petraeus’s struggle to salvage the Iraq war merely underlines the fact that invading Iraq was a crazy way to respond to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Six years after 9/11, the US needs to re-think. It is now clear that Iraq was the biggest blunder of the Bush years. It is also becoming evident that counter-terrorism should no longer be the centrepiece of American foreign policy. As the official 9/11 commission demonstrated, Saddam Hussein played no role in the terrorist attacks. He also had no nuclear weapons and no significant relationship with al-Qaeda.

But the Iraq invasion was not simply the wrong response to 9/11. It has actually made the terrorism problem worse in five significant ways.

First, it has diverted attention and troops from the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban are undefeated and al-Qaeda has re-grouped. Osama bin Laden is still alive and starring in home-made videos. Nobody is quite sure of his whereabouts – but he certainly is not in Iraq.

Second, it has created a failed state in Iraq – which is the best possible breeding ground for terrorism. In the aftermath of 9/11 the Bush administration became transfixed by the possibility of a rogue state handing over weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. It is a nasty idea. But it has never actually happened. By contrast, we have plenty of evidence that terrorism flourishes in failed states with large, lawless areas – such as Afghanistan or Somalia. Iraq has turned into just such a place.

Third, the Iraq war has created a new and virulent branch of al-Qaeda. Even the hawks at the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-war Washington think-tank, reckon that 90 per cent of the members of “al-Qaeda in Iraq” are locals. By invading Iraq, the Americans have managed to create a nationalist insurgency and fuse it with a global terrorist movement.

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