Smart on Terrorism

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Allen Shirley (Globe, July 14, 2007) objected to and misrepresented an argument made by some who oppose the war in Iraq. He states that he disagrees with the idea that “by fighting terrorism, we are just creating more terrorists.” Only a lack of awareness about the practice of distorting the arguments of others would give the impression that his logic is compelling.

The truth is that Iraq provided no assistance whatsoever to the terrorist activities of Al Qaeda. The 911 Commission found no evidence of a “collaborative operational relationship.” The commission found that efforts by Al Qaeda to obtain assistance from Iraq in 1994 were not responded to. Let’s be clear, the war in Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terrorism, although that is the dishonest conflation that had helped sell the war to the public.

It is also clear, based on data from the US State Department that world-wide terrorism has increased, even if you subtract every single terrorist attack in post-invasion Iraq. In fact the total number of terrorist attacks increased by 25%. How would you appraise the utility of the war? In the desire to be strong on terrorism, we needn’t sacrifice being smart on terrorism.