Does Confronting Terrorism Make It Worse?

DOES CONFRONTING TERRORISM MAKE IT WORSE?

Posted on 9/23/2006 at "Rightwing Nuthouse" in response to 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April (also featured in the New York Times and Washington Post articles today):

I am not disputing the conclusions in this leaked report. I am resisting the implications that some would draw from it; that if only we had not confronted the jihadists or worked to solve the root causes of terrorism, none of this would be true today.

I totally reject that notion. In fact, I believe it delusional thinking to say that we’d be any safer if we hadn’t invaded Iraq or if we had just lobbed a few cruise missiles at Osama Bin Laden following 9/11, or even if we had put enormous pressure on Israel to come to an agreement with the Palestinians. All of this ignores the one overarching truth about the nature of our enemies (and their tens of millions of supporters around the world); what they seek, we cannot give them.

Please read more here

UPDATE FROM WHITE HOUSE

A newspaper report that a U.S. intelligence analysis found that the Iraq war gave rise to a new generation of Islamic radicals and made the overall terrorism problem worse was "not representative of the complete document," the White House said on Sunday.