Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat

Directly contradicting the spin continually pumped out of the White House and now also spun by Canada’s New Government, is a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) which determined that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has directly led to an increase in radicalization and world wide terrorism. (New York Times)

This report is not to be dismissed; a NIE is put together for the National Security Council – the overarching security body which the President of the United States himself chairs.

The NIE‘s conclusion is merely common sense. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed by “coalition forces” during the so-called liberation of Iraq and its immediate aftermath, and to this day, each and every month thousands of civilians die violently due to the undeclared but raging civil war which is a direct result of Bush’s actions. Each death leaves a trail of anguish, and anger, through much larger family, community and tribal connections.

While the NIE won’t judge the president for his decision to start an illegal, immoral, and unneccessary war, the rest of us can. We can also hold to account Canada’s biggest political booster for the Iraq war, Stephen Harper. (MW: Harper would have sent Canada to war with Iraq; “We support the war effort and believe we should be supporting our troops and our allies and be there with them doing everything necessary to win,” – Stephen Harper, Wednesday April 2, 2003)

More to the point for Canadians, almost inextricably, Afghanistan appears to be headed to the same unfortunate end as Iraq. Will we merely keep trudging along the same path – the path to failure that the U.S. has already blazed, or will we do something different that leads to a better outcome?