Comments on: CIA: Iraq May Be Prime Place for Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report Concludes

By: Clint Lovell

Clint Lovell — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:11:19 +0000

Who is running the CIA, Laurel & Hardy? The CIA thinks Iraq may be a place where terrorists are being trained.

Gee...

Whatever gave them that idea?

By: Anderson

Anderson — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 22:57:53 +0000

Arguably, corraling the terrorists in Iraq so we could fight them there rather than here was a large part of the rationale behind the war. Clearly, though, they werenât anticipating anything like this scale. Saw something yesterday on the morality of turning the Iraqis' country into our terrorist flypaper, w/ the "hardly surprising" collateral damage, but can't recall where. Btw, Google implies that JJ's "hardly surprising" has no such pro-Bush history as I'd suggested; it just rang a bell.

By: reliapundit

reliapundit — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:41:30 +0000

drjj, you wrote:
"If they can defeat the U.S. effort to create a democratic government in the heart of the Arab Middle East, they will have achieved a major victory."

name one nation defeated by terrorists!?

not one has. ever. not anyhwere.

not israel. not sri lanka. not the UK. not india.
not spain. not columbia.

not one.

ever.

if we don't surrender and withdraw prematurely and/or cut-off funding of the Iraqis' nascent democracy - as the Dem controlled Congress did in 1975 to the South Vietnamese people(when they pulled the plug on financing the SVG) - then the Iraqis will win.

25,000 neojihadists/baathists CANNOT POSSIBLY defeat the 25 MILLION other Iraqis who want democracy/self-rule and NOT a return to genocidal tyranny.

The Kurds and the Shia will never allow that to happen.And they are ABSORBING awful losses proving just that.

By: legion

legion — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:15:22 +0000

Arguably, corraling the terrorists in Iraq so we could fight them there rather than here was a large part of the rationale behind the war.

Funny, I don't recall Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, or anyone else playing up that particular rationale to the Iraqis themselves... "Hey! We'd like to turn your country into the grand poo-bah convention center for terror, mayhem, and violence for the next ten years! Y'all don't mind soakin' up a few car bombs for the US, dooya? Condi calls it a 'generational convention'! Cool, huh?"

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:03:31 +0000

Anderson: I merely say it's "unsurprising" in that it's been obvious for well over a year. This isn't something that requires the secret sources of the CIA to figure out--anyone reading the papers knows that there are a slew of terrorists running around Iraq killing people. Arguably, corraling the terrorists in Iraq so we could fight them there rather than here was a large part of the rationale behind the war. Clearly, though, they weren't anticipating anything like this scale.

By: Just Me

Just Me — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:47:16 +0000

Also, it is probably good training for the Iraqi soldiers.

They are being battle tested and trained under fire.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:37:32 +0000

I have this sense that whenever more evidence comes out that Bush's policies are foolish, OTB comments that the news is "hardly surprising," thus defanging the evidence. One day I will have to research this & see if my sense is correct ...

By: M. Murcek

M. Murcek — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 16:58:49 +0000

One would assume that our troops are also learning some things about terrorists.