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“Most people believe that the recent elections mark the beginning of the end of the Bush era, but that does not apply to the war on terror,” says a new study report.
There is no end in the horizon for Washington’s so-called war on terror which could extend for more than 30 years as the Bush administration has given a “gift” to extremists and terrorists by invading both Iraq and Afghanistan, a leading British global security think-tank said in a new study.
“The fundamental mistake was to terminate the Saddam Hussein regime by force, since this provided a gift to al-Qaida and other radical groups, by inserting 150,000 American troops into the heart of the Arab world as what is seen across the region as an occupying force,” concludes the study.
The “Into the Long War: Oxford Research Group International Security Report 2006”, is written by Professor Paul Rogers, ORG’s global security consultant and professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford.
Each year, these briefings are brought together with new analysis into an ORG International Security Report. The latest of these, Into the Long War, was published by Pluto Press in November 2006.
It has drawn up its conclusions from events in Iraq and the Middle East over the past year. The study says that the US-led invasion of Afghanistan has made matters worse and backfired as it helped beef up Taliban.
“The war in Afghanistan itself is now into its sixth year with a marked increase in Taliban activity at a time of record revenues from opium production,” it asserts. “As well as NATO’s forces, the United States has committed 20,000 troops to the country in a largely unreported counter insurgency operation that shows no sign of ending.”
Experts said that five years after the US invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, the West’s strategy has proved a failure in putting the country on the promised “path of progress”. The ousted Taliban is now regrouping and leading a revived resistance against the US-led foreign forces. The new strategic study insists that the US-led forces are part of the problem in Iraq and not the solution.
“There is a growing consensus among those who have actually seen service in Iraq that the coalition presence is inflaming the problem, rather than being part of the solution,” said ORG’s Executive Director, John Sloboda. He said the US forces in Iraq must withdraw as soon as possible.
“Our June 2006 submission to the Iraq Study Group urged that the coalition should find no dishonour in recognising that most Iraqis want an end to occupation and a fresh framework could support them better in future,” asserted Sloboda. “The carnage of the last six months has eroded any lingering doubt that the coalition must leave, and leave soon.”
The study expects the Democrats’ control over Congress to make very little difference to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Most people believe that the recent elections mark the beginning of the end of the Bush era, but that does not apply to the war on terror,” Rogers says. “In reality, there will be little change until the United States faces up to the need for a fundamental rethink of its policies. So far, even with the election results, there is no real sign of that.” Empowered by their sweeping Congressional mid-term election victory and a mandate from American voters, Democrats are pressing for a phased US troop pullout from Iraq in the next four to six months, putting the pullout as their top priority when the new Congress convenes in January. But the report says there is virtually no commitment to a full withdrawal from Iraq. “Instead there are various moves to modify policy, including the option of withdrawing from the cities to a few major bases, but none amounts to a really substantial change.”
The new strategic study concludes that despite the hard times in the chaos-marred country, the US has no other option, but to stay the course for the sake of oil.
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