NIE Report Declassified
You can read it here. It’s pretty short, and very readable, and certainly doesn’t seem to back up the doom and gloom claims we heard from Democrats and the media a few days ago.
Here are some excerpts I found interesting:
United States-led counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged the leadership of al-Qa’ida and disrupted its operations; however, we judge that al-Qa’ida will continue to pose the greatest threat to the Homeland and US interests abroad by a single terrorist organization. We also assess that the global jihadist movement—which includes al- Qa’ida, affiliated and independent terrorist groups, and emerging networks and cells—is spreading and adapting to counterterrorism efforts.
Basically, what we’ve been doing in the war on terror so far has been working, but the war is not won yet. Our enemy is adapting, and so we need to remain vigilant against the terror threat and continue to develop new ways to detect and thwart attacks.
This is exactly what the President/Republicans have been saying all along.
We assess that the global jihadist movement is decentralized, lacks a coherent global strategy, and is becoming more diffuse. New jihadist networks and cells, with anti-American agendas, are increasingly likely to emerge. The confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups.
That’s good and bad. On one hand, we’ve seriously disrupted the major terror networks. On the other hand, this has caused the jihadist movement to go underground where it may be harder to root out.
Now here’s the part the media/Democrats were up in arms about:
We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.
That statement, which is the part of the report hyped by the media/Democrats, sounds really bad...but when we put it in context with other statements from the report it isn’t as bad as it seems.
Take this, for example:
The Iraq conflict has become the ìcause celebreî for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
Is that not support for finishing the mission in Iraq? If the terrorists fighting us in Iraq feel like they’ve failed, and are perceived to have failed, fewer and fewer potential terrorists will be willing to take up the fight. That is what Iraq war supporters have been saying since day #1 of the invasion. We cannot pull out of Iraq until the mission is completed. The terrorists cannot be made to feel like they’ve driven us from Iraq, or else it will just embolden them and draw out support for their causes.
This is also why the constant negativity from the media/Democrats is so harmful to American foreign policy. When Jack Murtha talks about our troops being “worn out” or “stretched too thin,” or when Howard Dean tells the world that America can’t win in Iraq the terrorists hear that. They hear that and are emboldened to keep fighting. I would submit that if America were more united behind this war in Iraq, and if the media would provide fair coverage of it, we’d be a lot closer to completing our mission than we are.
There is also this from the report:
Greater pluralism and more responsive political systems in Muslim majority nations would alleviate some of the grievances jihadists exploit. Over time, such progress, together with sustained, multifaceted programs targeting the vulnerabilities of the jihadist movement and continued pressure on al-Qa’ida, could erode support for the jihadists.
Read that it again, because it presents direct support for President Bush’s foreign policy as it applies to the middle east. The Bush administration has said all along that we are fighting in the middle east to spread democracy there, which in turn will stop people from turning to extremist Islam for solutions to their grievances. This report states that “greater pluralism” (read: more democracy) and “more responsive political systems” in the Muslim world would “alleviate some of the grievances jihadists exploit.” This is exactly what we’re doing in Iraq.
Here’s more support for spreading democracy to the Muslim world:
If democratic reform efforts in Muslim majority nations progress over the next five years, political participation probably would drive a wedge between intransigent extremists and groups willing to use the political process to achieve their local objectives.
No wonder Democrats, once President Bush announced his intent to declassify this report, tried to keep it all under wraps.
And, quite frankly, the journalists who characterized this report as some sort of major indictment of the war in Iraq ought to be ashamed of themselves. They have willfully and blatantly mislead the public. Though mixed on Iraq’s role in the war on terror, it is indictment of it. Quite to the contrary, it offers support for many of the reasons given by President Bush for going to war in that country in the first place.
mmie
Kenny
Lioncourt
likwidshoe
gustave776
Justin B.
