Mother Jones Article Claims Iraqi War Increased Terrorism Seven Times

Mother Jones magazine has an interesting article about the connection between terrorism and the Iraq War. According to the two authors, both connected with New York University's School of Law, the level of terrorist attacks has gone up seven times from the period between 3.21.2003 to 9.30.2006 compared to the period of 9.12.2001 to 3.20.2003. March 20, 2003, was the start of the Iraqi War. According to the researchers they set out to answer the three following questions:

1. Has jihadist terrorism gone up or down around the world since the invasion of Iraq?
2. What has been the trend if terrorist incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan (the military fronts of the "war on terrorism") are excluded?
3. Has terrorism explicitly directed at the United States and its allies also increased?

The authors believe these questions to be important because the Bush Administration often makes the argument that while the Iraq War is hard, it is necessary because terrorists have to understand that we will fight them. The thinking seems to be that once we have demonstrated that we will resist them, they will stop attacking us. A Of course, that argument only makes sense if the Iraq War is actually having the claimed effect. If instead, as these authors argue, it is having the effect of actually increasing terrorist attacks, then the above rationale goes out the window.

The article is worth reading. Of course, since it is based on empirical evidence and not on wishful thinking, it will be ignored by the radical right-wing Republicans who make up Bush's base.