The Observer, September 29, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 5
Free Speech Zone: War in Iraq contributes to U.S. hatred
You may not know it by reading the news releases of the American mainstream media, but a report released this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (John Negroponte) concluded that the War in Iraq has been a boon to global terrorist organizations. The report, known as the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has not been released in full, though Senators from both parties are calling on the President to release the report in full to the public.
The report called the war in Iraq a "cause célèbre for jihadists," and points out four main factors leading to hatred of the U.S. in the region - 1.) as stated above, is the War in Iraq, 2.) "entrenched grievances" due to Western support for corrupt and oppressive regimes, 3.) "the slow pace of…economic, social, and political reform in many Muslim majority nations, and 4.) a "pervasive anti-U.S. sentiment among most Muslims." It then goes on to give some brief and incomplete suggestions for countering the "jihadists" movement. There is, hopefully, much more substance to the portions of the report which were not released to the public. However, reading what has been released is troubling for two reasons.
First, even the government, with the exception of the Bush administration, now admits that our anti-terrorism policies are not working and if anything, our actions have only aided terrorists in recruiting new fighters. The report suggests aiding democratic efforts in the Middle East and working with the Muslim mainstream to oppose popular, if tacit, support for radical terrorist movements. Seems simple enough in theory, and while these goals would not be easy to accomplish, the policies of the Bush administration could not, I repeat, could not be any more counterproductive and ineffective at achieving these aims. While continuing to prop up extremely unpopular regimes (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and our new friend Libya) throughout the Middle East, governments which do in fact "hate freedom," the administration has alienated the majority of Muslims who abhor Al-Qaeda types by pursuing a quixotic, pseudo-imperialistic agenda with an "I know better than you" approach to the situation.
Second, and more troubling for me, is that the report offers no reassurance as to what the government really intends to do now. It is written in a gee-golly, matter-of-fact tone which makes one wonder what these supposed intelligence agents do all day. The report's depth of knowledge of both global terrorist networks and the various insurgencies in Iraq could have been recited by an eighth-grader who only occasionally reads the New York Times. It really is troubling that the government is either withholding so much information that it cannot articulate a coherent policy to the public, or even more worrisome, it has no clue what it is doing. Of course, the reality of the situation is probably a combination of the two; but this is far from comforting.
As concerned and educated citizens, we cannot afford to allow the failure of the administration, and the failure of Congress to challenge the administration, to get off with impunity. If our representatives refuse to redress the excessive and ineffectual yielding of power by the Bush administration, it is our duty as citizens to either convince them to do so or elect someone who will. If our policies are not drastically and quickly change, we can expect anti-Americanism and the global terrorist threat, to become even more abject in the future.
The released tidbits of the report can be found at: http://www.dni.gov/.
