Opinion Destination jihad
For nearly a decade,Iraq acted as a laboratory for terrorists to hone and perfect their techniques
Iraq,President George W. Bush said in 2003,was a central front in the war on terrorism. He was wrong,but prescient. Iraq has become a front for militant extremism a front the US created. Leaving aside everything else the absence of weapons of mass destruction,the toll in blood and fortune,the immense loss of life the 10th anniversary of the invasion is a moment to reflect on this huge setback in the so-called war on terror.
The al Qaeda affiliate that emerged in Iraq over the last decade did not disappear when Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 or when the last American troops withdrew in December. On the contrary,the group is resurgent in Iraq and now its neighbours.
Following the invasion of Iraq,terrorism within Iraqs borders began to rise precipitously. There were 78 terrorist attacks against civilians in Iraq in the first 12 months following the invasion; in the second 12,the number nearly quadrupled. At the height of the war in 2007,terrorists claimed 5,425 civilian lives . The violence has since declined,but Sunni militants are determined to regain the leverage they had lost in their war against American forces.
The costs of the terrorism inspired by the war include much more than the number,however horrifying,of lives lost. The terrorists drawn to Iraq since 2003 and survived have been battle-hardened after fighting the most sophisticated military in history,often working together with former officials from Saddam Husseins Baathist regime. They have developed expertise in counterintelligence,gunrunning,forgery and smuggling. Smuggling routes and alliances that moved terrorists and supplies into Iraq during the height of the war,in 2006-07,have been reversed,allowing fighters and supplies to flow into neighbouring countries,particularly Syria,now in its third year of civil war.
Al Qaeda in Iraq is now increasingly active abroad. In October 2012,Jordanian authorities detained 11 suspects whose alleged goal was to kill as many people as possible. Al Qaeda in Iraq is also playing an increasingly important role among the Islamists fighting President Bashar al-Assads regime in Syria. As Iraqs jihad was for much of the past decade,Syrias is now becoming the destination jihad du jour.
For nearly a decade,Iraq acted as a laboratory for terrorists to hone and perfect their techniques. Innovations in tradecraft included the extensive use of improvised explosive devices,suicide attacks,and the dissemination of jihadist propaganda via the video-recording of terrorist activities and the development of online bulletin boards and websites. Suicide attacks,for example,were used with increasing frequency in Iraq between 2003 and 2005 before the tactic migrated to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Similarly,terrorists perfected the use of car bombs and roadside bombs.
The good news from Iraq,to the extent that there is any,is that the US removed from power a brutal dictator. But we also left behind,after seven bloody years,not only a shattered nation but also an international school for terrorists whose alumni are now spreading throughout the region.
Stern is the author of Denial: A Memoir of Terror
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