A Dire Situation
In a news briefing earlier this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan gave the usual Bush doublespeak when it comes to the the rationale for being in Iraq:
That's why, as the President said earlier today, we are fighting the terrorists in Iraq so that we don't have to fight them here at home.
The problem with that thought is that we have created the very terrorists we're fighting. As reported by the NY Times in an article on a CIA assessment of the situation, Iraq has become a fertile breeding ground for Islamic terrorists.
They said the assessment had argued that Iraq, since the American invasion of 2003, had in many ways assumed the role played by Afghanistan during the rise of Al Qaeda during the 1980's and 1990's, as a magnet and a proving ground for Islamic extremists from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.
snip
[T]he officials said Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries would soon have to contend with militants who leave Iraq equipped with considerable experience and training.
We have traded one bad situation with Hussein in power for another more dangerous and destabilizing situation. Unlike Vice President Cheney and his overly optimistic assertions, I don't believe the insurgency is in its "last throes." The situation seems bleaker by the day as the drumbeat of attacks keeps coming in over the news wires. Thirty-eight dead yesterday from a series of car bombings. Two U.S. Marines killed and others wounded in attacks yesterday.
So far it's all limited to Iraq, but when do the death and mayhem spread to other countries in the Middle East or to our shores? Even if we pull out, I don't see an end to the insurgency. The strife will continue. Far from being accomplished, the mission is in dire straits.