Take the time to read this article in The New York Times that says that…well, here. This excerpt will give you a pretty good idea of what it says…
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
Yow. If this is an accurate characterization of that report, then the people we trust to know this kind of thing believe the Bush administration has made the problem worse, not better. And sadly, it's probably true since the report issued last week by the House Intelligence Committee said pretty much the same thing but with only a tad less pessimism. It's hard to fathom why there are still people in this country who back George W. Bush because they think he's made us safer. But there are such people. Five or six of them will now write to me and accuse me of "Bush-hating."
I have to go and work on a script. When I next find time to post, I'll try and make it something about comics or old movies or something more important than this War in Iraq stuff.