Mideast More Secure But Iraq Inspires Qaeda - IISS
By REUTERS
Published: May 24, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. policy has helped improve Middle East security over the past year, but Iraq still drives recruits into the arms of al Qaeda, one of the world's top think tanks said on Tuesday in its annual survey of global security.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies, whose experts have sometimes been skeptical of U.S. policy under President Bush, gave credit to Washington for measures that appeared to bear fruit over the past year.
But it said that the security picture in Iraq, which improved markedly in the wake of January's election, has deteriorated again over the past two months....
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It also pointed to progress in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the promise of multi-party elections in Egypt and uprisings against Syria in Lebanon as examples of U.S. policy success....
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"But the inspirational effect of the Iraq intervention on transnational Islamist terrorism remained the proverbial elephant in the living room....From al Qaeda's point of view, Bush's Iraq policies have arguably produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a strategically bogged down America, hated by much of the Islamic world and regarded warily even by its allies."...
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-security-iiss.html