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US Anti-Terrorism policies pay off in global security, says
think-tank
Washington's policies of promoting democracy in Iraq and elsewhere
look "increasingly effective", the International Institute for
Strategic Studies said in an annual report.
 "From Al-Qaeda's point of view, Bush's Iraq policies have
arguably produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a
strategically bogged-down America hated by much of the Islamic world
and regarded warily even by its allies," the IISS said.
Nonetheless, Al-Qaeda and the global Islamic terrorist movement
remained "physically and ideologically in flux".
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The London-based think-tank noted however that the situation in Iraq
was also creating a recruitment effect for terrorist groups, an
aspect which remained "the proverbial elephant in the living room" of
US foreign policy.
The report said that the improvement in the overall strategic climate
was helped by factors such as the death of Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat, but it added that US President George W. Bush's foreign
policies also seemed to be bearing fruit.
"Even though the Bush policy was bold, controversial and sometimes
divisive, his aggressive global agenda of promoting freedom, and
democracy appeared increasingly effective," the IISS said in its 384-
page "Strategic Survey 2004-05".
Counter-terrorism efforts over the period had also seen an overall
net gain, the report argued, despite the
seemingly "counterproductive" aspects of some of the United States's
self-declared "war on terror".
The US-led occupation of Iraq focused the worries of many Muslims
worldwide and made them "more easily seduced by Osama bin Laden's
arguments", the think-tank said, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader.
Additionally, the massive US military commitment to Iraq had drained
resources from other areas more closely associated with terrorism,
such as Afghanistan.
"From Al-Qaeda's point of view, Bush's Iraq policies have arguably
produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a strategically
bogged-down America hated by much of the Islamic world and regarded
warily even by its allies," the IISS said.
Nonetheless, Al-Qaeda and the global Islamic terrorist movement
remained "physically and ideologically in flux".
Al-Qaeda's expulsion from Afghanistan had lost the group its main
base, while the positive use of diplomatic "soft power" by the United
States and its allies to combat terrorists was growing.
The robustness of US efforts to establish democracy in Iraq, coupled
with renewed hopes for Middle East peace following Arafat's death in
November 2004, "allowed for a more optimistic counter-terrorism
outlook than did circumstances at the end of 2003", the IISS
concluded.
This is in stark contrast to the think-tank's warning in its previous
Strategic Survey a year ago that the Madrid train bombings of March
2004 appeared to indicate that Al-Qaeda "had fully reconstituted".
Elsewhere in this year's report, the IISS noted that Iran had
appeared impervious to "good cop, bad cop" pressure from the
European Union and the United States to stop its nuclear programme,
although Tehran's elections next month could see a change.
On a more general level, the international scene was different thanks
to a change in US policy following George W. Bush's re-election as
president, and a realization in Washington that the "aggressive
entrepreneurship" on the world stage of US ideals was not always
helpful.
International diplomacy during Bush's second term looked set to
be "considerably less turbulent and polarizing than it was in his
first", the IISS argued.
"Overall, Bush appeared to learn from the Iraq experience that even
the United States could not do anything it wanted -- certainly not
without the help of its allies, partners and sometimes even
multinational institutions."
Story Credits: Yahoo
News
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