“Fight against al-Qa’eda terrorism ‘is a disaster’,” from The Telegraph:
The so-called war on terror has been a “disaster” and British military policy in Iraq and Afghanistan must be fundamentally changed if al-Qa’eda is to be defeated, a report claims today.
Very interesting. Go on…
The Oxford Research Group calls for major changes in foreign policy and warns
of the dangers of military action against Iran.
Iraq has become a training ground for violent jihadists and British and US forces should withdraw from the country immediately, the think-tank adds. The Prime Minister announced during a visit to British troops in Iraq last week that 1,000 of them would be back in the UK by Christmas. He will update MPs on the situation today in a Commons statement.
The Oxford Research Group’s report claims that the fight against international terrorism has failed and has instead played into the hands of al-Qa’eda.
The dismantling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001-02 was of “direct value” to al-Qa’eda and the “extraordinary rendition” and detention of terror suspects is a “constant source of propaganda”, it adds. The report calls for a complete withdrawal from
Iraq, a scaling down of military operations in Afghanistan and the ending of “extraordinary rendition” “” sending suspects to another country to be interrogated “”and detention without
trial.
So… deposing the Taliban to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven was of direct value to al-Qaeda. Is this a… “doublethink” tank?
More from Reuters, in “Report says war on terror is fuelling al Qaeda,” by Kate Kelland:
LONDON (Reuters) – Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the “war on terror” is failing and instead fuelling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday.
“If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut,” said Paul Rogers, the report’s author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England.
Again, the part about understanding al-Qaeda sounds interesting. But he continues:
“Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level.”
[…]
The report — Alternatives to the War on Terror — recommended the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq coupled with intensive diplomatic engagement in the region, including with Iran and Syria.
In Afghanistan, Rogers also called for an immediate scaling down of military activities, an injection of more civil aid and negotiations with militia groups aimed at bringing them into the political process.