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USMarinesTanker writes, "The casual observer would say you are against Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of the greater Global War on Terror." That's correct. I don't believe that "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is helping to win the war on terror. In this regard, my opinion is the same as 8 out of 10 terrorism and national security experts when they were [http://www.columbusdispatch.com/national-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/29/20060629-A3-00.html surveyed recently]. In the words of Michael Scheuer (formerly the CIA's top Osama Bin Laden expert), "The war in Iraq broke our back in the war on terror. It has made everything more difficult and the threat more existential." USMarinesTanker also writes, "I must in turn ask you when the last terrorist action on U.S. soil was after 9/11?" The 9/11 terrorist attack was the single largest terrorist attack ever on U.S. or any other soil. It took years of planning and probably at least a million dollars to carry out. The fact that an unprecedented attack on that scale has not happened again in the five years since really tells us very little about whether the terrorist threat has increased or decreased. However, we do have other indicators which tell us that the terrorist threat has increased. Every year since 1985, the U.S. Department of State has been required to publish an annual report, titled Patterns of Global Terrorism, which tracks countries and groups involved in international terrorism. The 2004 edition of Patterns of Global Terrorism tallied attacks for 2003 (the first year of the war in Iraq). It turns out that 2003 saw 175 significant terrorist attacks (defined as attacks in which lives are lost or there is injury and property damage of more than $10,000) -- the largest number of significant terrorist attacks since 1982. The following year, the numbers were even worse -- 651 significant terrorist attacks, nearly four times the amount of the previous year’s embarrassment, with 1,907 people killed and 9,300 wounded -- roughly a tripling of the previous year’s casualty toll. Iraq alone saw 198 attacks that year -- nearly the worldwide total for 2003 -- but even if all of those attacks were omitted, the number of terrorist attacks in the rest of the world were still more than double the all-time record. The numbers were so bad that the Bush administration decided not to publish Patterns of Global Terrorism at all in 2005. In its place, the State Department created a new report, Country Reports on Terrorism, which omitted the statistical information provided in the previous reports. And it should be noted that the 651 terrorist attacks tallied for 2004 did not include attacks on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, or even attacks on Iraqi civilians by other Iraqis. The long-standing US definition of international terrorism, used by "Patterns of Global Terrorism," defined it as violent acts against non-combatants, and it has to involve the territory or citizens of more than one country. (Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City would also not fit this definition of terrorism.) The National Counterterrorism Center, a government agency created by President Bush in 2004, has compiled a separate report that does include other incidents not previously classed as terrorism (although attacks on soldiers are still excluded). Using this more inclusive definition, the number of terrorist incidents in 2004 would be 3,192. The National Counterterrorism Center’s new database on terrorism was announced publicly in July 2005. That same month, a series of coordinated bombings hit London’s subways and a bus during rush hour, killing 56 people and injuring 700 -- the deadliest single act of terrorism in the United Kingdom since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The terrorists, claiming affiliation with Al Qaeda, released a statement calling the attack "revenge against the British Zionist crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan." It was the second act of Al Qaeda violence against a European nation providing military support to the war in Iraq. The previous attack, a series of coordinated bombings against commuter trains in Madrid, killed 192 people and wounded 2,050 and triggered the electoral defeat of Spain’s ruling party. The fact that these attacks happened in Europe suggests that Al Qaeda's focus for now is on peeling away the last vestiges of international support for the U.S. war. Once they've accomplished that goal, I expect that they'll attack again in the United States. In other words, they have a strategy, and it seems to be working. What you have, on the other hand, is bravado. USMarinesTanker also writes: <blockquote> I must also ask if you have personally seen the lives of Iraqis being bettered through U.S. construction, engineering, medical care, fiscal policy, and private donations? Have you personally heard dozens of Iraqi citizens tell you that they thank Allah for the United States and what we are doing for them? Have you even heard stories of such happenings from friends/the drive by media? Winning the hearts and minds indeed.</blockquote> No, I haven't seen those things. I see them mentioned in vague general terms by supporters of the war like yourself, but even supporters of the war rarely give specific examples. I do spend quite a bit of time reading weblogs written by both Iraqis and by U.S. military personnel, and the main thing I find striking about the milblogs written by people stationed in Iraq is how <i>rarely</i> they mention any of the good news you describe, or for that matter how rarely they describe any meaningful interactions at all with Iraqi nationals. The most common interaction I see described in milblogs consists of handing out candy to children (although that seems to happen less and less now), or else overt statements of hostility written by soldiers who don't know the difference between friendlies and enemies. I know there <i>have</i> been efforts to rebuild schools and so forth, but the impression I get (based on multiple sources of information) is that those efforts pale compared to the suffering and chaos that the war has unleashed. When I read <i>Iraqi</i> weblogs, moreover, the trend is <i>really</i> disturbing. I've been tracking them for awhile, so I have some idea how things are trending. Here, for example, is the URL to a short list of English-language Iraqi weblogs that someone put together two years ago: http://www.rc3.org/2004/04/entry_6169.php Iraqis (like any group) have diverse opinions, and in the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein's fall, quite a few of them actually <i>did</i> welcome the U.S. invasion and occupation. There's no question that Saddam was a brutal monster and that plenty of people welcomed his fall. The Iraqi blogs on the list above include a range of opinions: from people who opposed the occupation from the outset, to people who welcomed it and even thought the U.S. needed to be more aggressive. If you visit those weblogs now, however, you'll find that even the ones that were supportive of the occupation two years ago have soured on it now. Take, for example, "Hammorabi," who was passionately pro-occupation to years ago. (He was probably the most pro-occupation blogger on the entire list.) If you visit his site today, you'll find a posting complaining that "[http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2006/07/american-soldiers-committed-terrorist.html American soldiers committed terrorist action and crime]" and stating, "The one thing which has to be said at this moment is that the occupation of Iraq should end sooner rather than latter. [sic] The last 3 years converted Iraq into the most dangerous place in the world and made it the country of death, blood, killing, destruction, assassinations, rapes, and every possible crime. Crimes from the kind mentioned here will turn all the Iraqis into the resistance against the occupation especially with the failures achieved over the last three years." You're telling me that your experience suggests otherwise, and that I should defer to your judgment because you've been there and I haven't. But "Hammorabi" has been in Iraq a lot longer than you were, so he has <i>more</i> experience than you do. Moreover, he actually speaks the language and knows the Iraqi street. I'm more inclined to think he knows what he's talking about than I am to think that you do.