The Iraq war has become a "major debacle" that has actually made America less safe. That's not an anti-war Democrat talking -- it's the conclusion of some of the Pentagon's top military strategists.
The new assessment is a sobering reminder that, for all the Bush administration's talk of "surge" success and victory in sight, the Iraq war carries heavy costs for the country while delivering doubtful gains.
The new report, from the Pentagon's top education institute and based on interviews with former senior defense and intelligence officials, concludes that Iraq has become a "major war" with no clear outcome that has diminished America's standing abroad.
Far from enhancing America's security, our efforts in Iraq "have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East."
Moreover, the war has diverted "manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers" from "all other efforts" in the war on terror.
That key assessment is bolstered by another new report, this one from the Government Accountability Office, the research arm of Congress, which supports the contention that the Iraq war has become a distraction from the war on terror and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida -- the people who actually attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001.
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