Clarke's breakdown
Michael Young, Reason:
...
"This is where Clarke's allegations, and those of critics who see a disconnect between Al Qaeda and Iraq, are misleading. Iraq always was essential to the anti-terrorism battle precisely because victory there was regarded as necessary to transform societies from where terrorists, spawned by suffocating regimes, had emerged. One can disagree with the practicability of such a strategy, but it is difficult to fault its logic.
"...Sept. 11 went beyond Al Qaeda and reflected a more fundamental problem in the Arab world: the existence of regimes allowing or directing resentment toward the outside, particularly against the West, to cover up for their own asphyxiation of liberties.
"Lest some find this argument—that autocracy breeds terrorism—deceptive, it is worth recalling it was one that America's most vociferous critics floated after Sept. 11. But that was before they realized that such an opinion placed them in the same boat as Bush administration hawks. Once they did, they preferred to backtrack, on the assumption that anti-Americanism is always more rewarding than consistency."
Michael Young, Reason:
...
"This is where Clarke's allegations, and those of critics who see a disconnect between Al Qaeda and Iraq, are misleading. Iraq always was essential to the anti-terrorism battle precisely because victory there was regarded as necessary to transform societies from where terrorists, spawned by suffocating regimes, had emerged. One can disagree with the practicability of such a strategy, but it is difficult to fault its logic.
"...Sept. 11 went beyond Al Qaeda and reflected a more fundamental problem in the Arab world: the existence of regimes allowing or directing resentment toward the outside, particularly against the West, to cover up for their own asphyxiation of liberties.
"Lest some find this argument—that autocracy breeds terrorism—deceptive, it is worth recalling it was one that America's most vociferous critics floated after Sept. 11. But that was before they realized that such an opinion placed them in the same boat as Bush administration hawks. Once they did, they preferred to backtrack, on the assumption that anti-Americanism is always more rewarding than consistency."
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