Worldwide Terror incidents 2000 – 2006
Originally uploaded by AlaskanLibrarian.
In a Friday speech, President Bush once again attacked the good faith and intelligence of people who oppose the war in Iraq:
Some have selectively quoted from this document to make the case that by fighting the terrorists, by fighting them in Iraq we are making our people less secure here at home. This argument buys into the enemy’s propaganda that the terrorists attack us because we’re provoking them. I want to remind the American citizens that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001. (Applause.)
Although he used the phrase “here at home” in this particular speech, he has claimed that the world is safer as a result of the Iraq war dozens of times since 2003 and has never retracted this claim.
The President’s claim that the world is safer from terror as a result of the Iraq war is a testable hypothesis. We look at the indicators of terrorist activity available to us. If the amount of terrorism trends downward, then the President is right.
As this graph shows, that is not the case. This image was created by the Incident Analysis Wizard graphing tool at the Terrorism Knowledge Base. The graph represents the tabulation of all domestic and international terrorism incidents worldwide between 2000 and 2006. I believe that it provides positive proof that the world is NOT safer as a result of the Iraq war. If you disagree and say so, I expect you to provide some other metric that involves how many terror incidents or deaths have occurred each year since 2002.
While it would be confusing causation with correlation to say that the Iraq war has produced more terorism (though that seems likely), I don’t see how anyone can argue that the world is safer based on measurable data.
The Terrorism Knowledge Base is a great site for all kinds of terrorism information on groups and attacks that have taken place since 1968. It’s worth checking out no matter your position on the war. It is a project of the The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), which was set up in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing.
On other issue that deserves some discussion is the President’s statement ” I want to remind the American citizens that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001.”
Actually, in some important ways, we never left Iraq after the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. Aside from the US sponsored UN sanctions that reportedly led to 500,000 deaths while imposing few costs on the regime, we bombed Iraq a number of times between 1991 and 2001. We bombed them in August 2001. As evidence, here are some headlines from Facts on File World News Digest (subscription required):
- Iraq: U.S., British Jets Attack Air Defenses (August 10, 2001) — World News Digest
- Iraq Rejects U.N. Proposals For Ending Deadlock; U.S. Warplanes Resume Attacks; Other Developments (April 08, 1999) — World News Digest
- Iraq: U.S. Planes Hit Missile Battery; Other News (August 19, 1993) — World News Digest
- Iraq Declares Cease-fire after More Attacks by U.S., Allies; Cruise Missiles Hit Alleged Arms Plant; Other Developments (January 19, 1993) — World News Digest
It’s reasonable to argue that these attacks were results of Iraqi violations of the no-fly zone enforced by the US and UK, but we were there and occaisonally bombed things other than air defenses.
Interestingly, even though we did strangle Iraq through sanctions and did bomb them throughout the 90s right up to August 2001, there was not a single Iraqi among the 9/11 highjackers and even the President himself now clearly says that Saddam had no role in 9/11.
On the face of it, it seems like those who remember that we were in Iraq prior to 9/11 and who believe the world is less safe on the basis of available data aren’t the ones buying into propaganda.
del.icio.us tags: AlaskanLibrarian:politics
Filed under: terrorism
