US wars have helped al-Qa'eda, says report

[sabra]

Source: UK Telegraph

American military intervention in Muslim countries has bred a generation of "angry young men" vulnerable to al-Qa'eda recruitment, a report from a leading security analysis group has said.

The Senlis Council, which has an extensive network of researchers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, said frustration with war and unemployment was underpinning the insurgency against western forces.

A survey conducted in Iraq last month found that 46% of young men said they were "angry all the time".

Similar levels of discontent have been detected in Afghanistan, where America has led the Nato coalition for six years and Somalia, which has not recovered from the chaos that led to a brief US intervention in 1991.

...

Condoleezza Rice's special adviser for Iraq, David Satterfield, echoed the Senlis call on Baghdad to start spending the tens of billions of dollars it receives in oil revenue to improve the conditions of its people.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/2199469/US-wars-have-helped-al-Qa'eda,-says-report.html

[madrchsod]

1. well duh.....everyone with a functioning brain cell

KNEW THAT!

oh well, i guess some people are just really slow....

[Ian David]

2. As published in, "Duh! Magazine," with a grant from "D'ja THINK?" Corporation. n/t

[surf]

3. So what are they saying?

Don't fight terrorism! You'll just make them mad at the US.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Wow, that's a terrific impersonation you do!

Had to have taken a lot of practice!

[gratuitous]

7. Where did you draw that conclusion?

Is the only way to "fight terrorism" by starting elective wars of aggression? That seems to be a very limited philosophy, and as this report details, ultimately self-defeating. Perhaps there's another way to "fight terrorism" that doesn't involve crimes against humanity, do you think?

[bluedeminredstate]

8. Yes.

That's exactly what they are saying. Aren't you perceptive.

:eyes:

[Dogtown]

11. You need to keep a lower profile, surfer.

The idea is to stealth in on us all creepy like. Like a Navy seal in the Mekong, and when we're unsuspecting garrotte us w/ the bootlace of clear conservative thinking.

You're rustling the bushes, Rambo, and giving away your location...




:eyes:

[uppityperson]

12. Well aren't you just the cutest little thing. Search is fun.

How about don't become a terrorist yourself? How about understanding that "collateral damage", aka killing civilians, raping/murdering/burning teens, kicking puppies off cliffs and all that other bad stuff just gets friends, family, communities really upset with you?

Make sure you go after the right people, for starters. What were the nationalities of those involved with the 9/11 attacks? No googling. Do you know?

You are soooooooo cute. :sarcasm:

[SpiralHawk]

23. Don't forget telling a deliberate pack of lies to start an Oil Profits Crusade

That didn't exactly warm the cockles of very many hearts around the globe.

[Magleetis]

14. You said that

They didn't.

[ghostsofgiants]

16. They're saying that the approach to combatting terrorism needs to be GREATLY reconsidered.

The current approach of "Lets bomb the fuck out of them and arrest and detain them with no evidence" is what one might call counter productive.

Mind you it's hardly news to anyone who has done some serious study of international terrorism.

[fascisthunter]

19. How is Occupying Iraq fighting Terrorism?

Since we know from this report that it is increasing terrorism. What don't you get or is it that you wish to create more terrorism around the World after all?

[LynnTheDem]

4. Well that's a huge DUHHHHHH.

Talk about your rocket surgery!

:eyes:

[SpiralHawk]

6. The republicon FAIL juggernaut rolls on...

weakening the USA further, while republicon cronies rake in Massive Profits and sneer at the damage they have done...

[Solly Mack]

9. Nothing gets past them does it?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. Bush's "War on Terror" has been a boon for terrorist organizations.

Who could have know killing, maiming, destroying entire cities and disregarding the culture of a nation would piss people off though?

[ezdidit]

13. madrassas....Reagan...

it would have been so much cheaper for us to fund educational institutions in the ME that were more moderate...but Reagan withdrew every.single.penny of these funds, and this fostered fundamentalism, the expansion of madrassas, Sharia law and non-critical thinking. In many ways, we deal with the onrush of terrorism that finds its roots in miserable US policy, courtesy of Reagan, one of our other worst presidents ever.

[ghostsofgiants]

15. My only reaction is "No shit."

[LeftishBrit]

17. How sad - and how absolutely predictable!

[McCamy Taylor]

18. And Gitmo was set up to breed a new generation of Al Qaeda leaders.

[paparush]

20. Perpetual War, its what the neocons want. Keep the defense dollars flowing,

the middle class and poor hurting, and the liberties shrinking.

[iamahaingttta]

21. It was done this way on purpose.

I mean, c'mon!

How else were the Bushies going to steal our civil liberties, impose a police state, loot the treasury and kill off as many people on the planet as possible? This was not a mistake, this was policy.

And who doesn't understand that the Saudis, in particular, and the other Middle East oil barons weren't part of the scam? They want to kill off all those angry young men as much as "we" do!

Anybody with a brain knew this was going to happen, and any apologist with a brain knew this was going to happen. They just kept their mouths shut and repeated the party line. It's the brainless, like the newbie above, who actually believe that "we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here."

[Ghost Dog]

22. Download the full report here:

http://www.senliscouncil.net/

Iraq - Angry Hearts and Angry Minds

Iraq - Angry Hearts and Angry Minds report cover
# LONDON, 26 JUNE 2008
The Senlis Council has maintained an operational base in the southern provinces of Afghanistan since 2004. Initially aimed at providing a firsthand view of the burgeoning opium trade, this local presence in Kandahar and Helmand has enabled us to develop an expertise in many of the issues associated with poppy cultivation.

Building upon this foundation, The Senlis Council broadened its examination of other key theatres within the War on Terror, launching a research platform in Somalia – the first outside of Afghanistan – in March 2008. On the ground research in May 2008 a third conflict zone – Iraq – led to this report, and prompted The Senlis Council to consider an alternative approach to global security issues. In this report we offer a Situation Report (SITREP) on Iraq, as well as the initial findings from a series of interviews conducted in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, and an examination of what we believe the study of the three conflicts tells us about current global security policy. more...

Download the report (pdf 68pp)

Edit: The final section, "3.1 The War on Terror has exacerbated the problems it sought to address" (p.56) begins:

The aftermath of the Cold War heralded its own era of instability. However, rather than
symbolising the United States’ misuse of overwhelming military capability as it does today
and the ‘shock and awe’ that its War on Terror has triggered, the post-Cold War iteration
was instead a projection of the world’s collective incredulity at the sudden collapse of
communism.

Basking in the afterglow of what it believed to be a decisive ideological triumph, the
United States quickly lost its edge. This apparently conclusive victory bestowed Washington
with a sense of invincibility and inherent superiority, prompting a collective malaise in
strategic planning. Carefully crafted alliances with such significant states as Pakistan and
Indonesia were left to fester as the raison d’être for their expedient construction collapsed.
Former Cold War theatres were left abandoned as post-communist states were left to forge
their own futures in relative isolation. It is truly remarkable that so many fledgling states
were established without substantial cost to their populations.

This geopolitical neglect quickly backfired upon the United States. Although clear markers
were put in place regarding what laid in store for the world’s sole superpower (including,
but not exclusively, foiled attacks on the World Trade Centre in 1993; a catastrophic
international intervention in Somalia between 1993 and 1995; terrorist attacks upon US
forces in Saudi Arabia in 1996), Washington’s strategic blinkers prevented it from reacting.

A foreign policy paradigm based upon traditional tenets of overwhelming military and
economic power was ill-positioned to react to the intricate threat matrix that emerged in
the 1990s. The United States’ ability to achieve total battlefield domination through the
power projection toolkit of overwhelming land, sea and air supremacy were suddenly not
enough, as a raft of security challenges emerged that transcended national boundaries.
Terrorism, disease, resource allocation and access to the basic fundamentals of life are now
uppermost in the thoughts of Western strategic planners; classic zero sum game, state-tostate
conflict must rank very low in their priority lists.

While traditional military capabilities must be maintained by Western states, their
collective response to - and anticipation of – global threats is in desperate need of a fourth
arm. Although soft power mechanisms of diplomacy and addressing the legitimate political
grievances of disenfranchised populations around the world is still very much a work in
progress, their centrality to conflict prevention and resolution is without question.

...

[williesgirl]

24. Not to worry, * and his cabal won't see this - won't open the email, aka EPA research.

[RedCloud]

25. That was part of the plan...

"Try to imagine yourselves living in these tents.
Not for a day, not for a week
Not for a month, not for a year.

Suppose you imagine to yourselves that you are going to live in these tents all your lives. Believe me you will become a guerrilla. You will go and fight. Fight for your home. Fight for your land. Fight for your dignity."

These type of recruitment spiels have been around for decades. The Bushevicks want their own crusade to last for centuries while fleecing Social Security and inventing deranged wing nut overseers such as Homeland Security (our 14th such reporting agency) so that wing nuts can milk the budget dry and live off our welfare.

Then the poor go out and fight the wars of Empire. The ruler here sheds a few crocodile tears and on and on.

[Azooz]

26. Add me to the "angry old men"

US Alliance Afghan Genocide -
Six Million Excess Deaths?

By Dr Gideon Polya

http://countercurrents.org/polya081107.htm


Somalia - it had Peace for 3 months after 11 years of rule by war lords, but the CIA fixed that little problem fast.

Iraq - a government for the death squads, by the the death squads, for the the death squads - Bush can take the oil just as long they can keep killing Iraqi civilains in peace.


I do not have proof, but alCIAda's recruitment is not even at %10 of the levels before 9-11. It lost it's support when it started killing the Iraqi freedom fighters. it's worst mistake was going after the Iraqi Shia tribes, that made the Sunni tribes go after them.