gloom & doom

I had the biggest feeling of "I told you so" when I read this:

A new public report by the National Intelligence Council concludes that instead of diminishing terrorism, U.S.-occupied Iraq has replaced prewar Afghanistan as a breeding and training ground for terrorists who may disperse to conduct attacks elsewhere....

"The sad things is we have created what the administration claimed we were intervening to prevent: an Iraq/al-Qaida linkage," one of the senior intelligence officials said. (Link)

This isn't news, really, though it runs contrary to impression the Bush administration is trying to convey. When I was watching coverage of the Iraqi elections on 30 January, I mentioned this report to my sister, trying to point out the irony of it. Perhaps I flubbed the presentation, but she didn't seem to get the irony, and said, "Well, in a difficult transition like this, things are bound to be difficult for a while." But the point is, is the cure worse than the disease? Only time will tell.

If Iraq becomes prosperous, then it will retroactively validate the war in many people's minds, I think, whereas I think the focus should be on the justifications (or not) for the war beforehand. Already the terrorism that's popped up in Iraq has, I think, made people think that the war was justified as a fight against al Qaida. But creating a breeding ground for terrorists and then fighting them seems sort of like entrapment by the police.