Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground

By now, I'm sure you all have heard about the CIA report that shows how the war in Iraq has made fighting the War on Terror a whole lot harder. Here's the Washington Post's take (emphasis mine):

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."

Before the U.S. invasion, the CIA said Saddam Hussein had only circumstantial ties with several al Qaeda members. Osama bin Laden rejected the idea of forming an alliance with Hussein and viewed him as an enemy of the jihadist movement because the Iraqi leader rejected radical Islamic ideals and ran a secular government.

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.

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.

It feels good to say I told you so, but being right is exhausting.

Interesting that there's very little about it on the conservative websites. Newsmax calls the NIC, the CIA's thinktank, "future gazers" in an attempt to discredit them. In a search today on FoxNews' website for yesterday's article, the title came up, but clicking on it led to today's lead story about how Iraqis will be able to register to vote on the 30th.

Surprise surprise.