Today’s NYT report describing a U.S. intelligence assessment that the Iraq invasion has worsened global terrorism (no surprise there) is “not representative” of the entire assessment, the White House says.
So what does the entire asssessment say? The White House won’t say exactly. The report is still classified. But Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte offers that the assessment concludes that if the U.S. succeeds in stabilizing Iraq “fewer jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere.”
The implication of course is that regardless of whether we succeed in Iraq, jihadists will leave determined to carry on the fight. It’s just that if we fail, more will leave determined to fight.
Excellent. Our strategic objective now is to demoralize some of the jihadists.
