Reply #138: Yes, made things worse

[Jack Rabbit]

In terms of the war on terror, invading Iraq has only made a bad situation worse. Bush and his lieutenants tell Americans and anybody else who still willing to listen that Iraq is “the central front in the war on terror.” This is nonsense on it face, since Saddam had no associations with terrorists. Consequently, there was no possible way invading Iraq could have made Americans safer from the likes of Osama. On the contrary, since the invasion, al Qaida has regrouped and staged a number of attacks. Terrorists strike not only in Iraq but against western targets in Saudi Arabia. They have become stronger, not weaker. As Richard Clarke, the former US counterterrorism chief, pointed out, Osama’s propaganda always asserted that the US wanted to invade and occupy an oil rich Arab state. Now it has done so. This can only be a good recruiting point for al Qaida.