Why Listen to the CIA?

Here's yet more information which The Worst President Ever will doubtless ignore. And I suppose we can see his point. I mean, why listen to a bunch of loons like the National Intelligence Council? (They're the think tank for the CIA.) Of course any group with the word "intelligence" in their name would likely be verboten to our Cheerless Leader anyway. Let's see what they're up to this week, shall we?

Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground

Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.

Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries."

Well... knock me over with a feather. Who would have thought that might happen? Oh... wait. That's right. EVERYONE EXCEPT BUSH AND HIS BAND OF LOONS. What else do these "traitorous" thinkers have to say?

Bush described the war in Iraq as a means to promote democracy in the Middle East. "A free Iraq can be a source of hope for all the Middle East," he said one month before the invasion. "Instead of threatening its neighbors and harboring terrorists, Iraq can be an example of progress and prosperity in a region that needs both."

But as instability in Iraq grew after the toppling of Hussein, and resentment toward the United States intensified in the Muslim world, hundreds of foreign terrorists flooded into Iraq across its unguarded borders. They found tons of unprotected weapons caches that, military officials say, they are now using against U.S. troops. Foreign terrorists are believed to make up a large portion of today's suicide bombers, and U.S. intelligence officials say these foreigners are forming tactical, ever-changing alliances with former Baathist fighters and other insurgents.

You know, loons like Hugh Hewitt and his ilk keep mouthing the Bush line, implying that this is actually a good thing. Why? Because it "gathers all the terrorists in one place so we can kill them." And the frightening part is, they say it with a straight face, as if there were only some finite supply of "terrorists" and if we can only gather them together in one big Walmart of Terror of our own creation, we can just kill them all. What they fail to get (or more likely know, but refuse to admit) is that we are simply fueling more and more anger in the Muslim world, thereby creating a virtually limitless supply of terrorists.

But... oh, wait. What's this? It looks like somebody else already reached that conclusion before me. (This study was over a year in the making, by the way, and consulted more than 1300 experts in the field.)

According to the NIC report, Iraq has joined the list of conflicts -- including the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, and independence movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao in the Philippines, and southern Thailand -- that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology.

At the same time, the report says that by 2020, al Qaeda "will be superseded" by other Islamic extremist groups that will merge with local separatist movements. Most terrorism experts say this is already well underway. The NIC says this kind of ever-morphing decentralized movement is much more difficult to uncover and defeat.

It's almost too much to grasp. The mind reels at the arrogance, ignorance, and bloodymindedness of this bogus administration. And the ones paying the cost are our troops - and they're not paying in cash.

As suggested above, here's the exact quote from noted Mars resident, Hugh Hewitt. "The almost certain reaction from the anti-war crowd will be to condemn the invasion of Iraq as producing the next generation of terrorists as opposed to being a point where they gather (hopefully to be captured or killed.)" Pull your head out of Bush's fog, Hugh. You just don't get it.

Oliver Willis makes it short and sweet: " George W. Bush: Terrorist Enabler."

The Poor Man has an even better brief summary. I won't spoil it for you, but let you just go read it yourself.