Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Iraq War Brings Rise in Terrorist Attacks
(cross-posted at firedoglake)

Well, so much for making us safer and forget about “mission accomplished.”
Oh, I guess what President Bush meant to say is that he didn't care about the
rest of the world, including the Iraqis, as long as the bombs were blazing “over
there.” How Christian of you, brother Bush. Next week, April 26, will mark
the last 1000 days of George W. Bush's presidency. I feel safer already.

Last year the Bush administration calculated the number of terrorism incidences
in a manner that was not significantly broad, so in the middle of it they changed
their calculus. However, it only revealed the absurdity of Bush and Rummy's
rationalization for fighting the “war on terror,” which basically
amounted to the who cares who dies as long as it's not on American soil
strategy. According to Knight Ridder, over half of the fatalities in the rise
in terrorist attacks came from Iraq. The death toll does not include combat
deaths of U.S. soldiers, Iraqis and anyone else involved in the Iraq war.

The Republican party foreign policy is completely bankrupt. It lies in a rubble
in the Iraqi desert.

The number of terrorist attacks documented by U.S. intelligence agencies jumped sharply in 2005, crossing the 10,000 mark for the first time, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. Officials caution that much of the increase, due to be reported publicly next week, stems from a change last year in how terror attacks are counted, coupled with a more aggressive effort to tally such violence worldwide. But the documents say, and officials confirm, that some of the rise is traceable to the war in Iraq, where foreign terrorists, a homegrown insurgency and sectarian strife have all contributed to political bloodshed. Report documents major increase in terrorist incidents

The other problem with the Bush foreign policy failures is that while we’re
fighting the war in Iraq, other terrorist groups have been able to cement regional
fiefdoms. In addition, terrorist groups are not only more independent, but have
branched off into “micro-groups.” These terrorists are also involved
in cyberspace now, something that Richard
Clarke warned our government about over a decade ago, when he was President
Clinton’s terrorism czar, a cabinet level position at the time.

However, the minute George W. Bush came into office, he and his Cold War warriors
demoted Mr. Clarke and made
his former terrorism czar position a basic staff level post, ignored his warnings,
then didn’t bother to meet with him until the day before 9/11. For his
apology to the 9/11 families, Mr. Clarke was swiftboated by the Republicans,
while Ken doll Sean Hannity continues to repeat the ridiculous
Republican talking point that Bill Clinton was offered Osama.

The United States and its allies have mounted an intense military and diplomatic assault on terrorist havens, which include Somalia, the trans-Sahara in North Africa, and the Sulu Sea in Southeast Asia. While that effort has had some success, officials say they're alarmed about a new haven: cyberspace, which terrorists are using for recruitment, propaganda and even training. The annual tally of terrorist attacks has drawn intense scrutiny in recent years, in part because of a series of embarrassing and controversial incidents. In April 2004, the State Department issued a report for calendar year 2003 that incorrectly stated that significant terrorist attacks had declined from the year before. In fact, the number of attacks had risen, but the report failed to include major attacks at the end of 2003. (source)

Larry Johnson disagrees with how the Bush administration is defining terrorism.
However, I would say that's the least of our problems, as long as George W.
Bush is in office and the Republican party's bankrupt foreign policy and national
security strategeries are the order of the day.