"We're Winning"

Via Josh Marshall we find this article from Peter Bergen (well known go-to guy on all matters Al Qaeda in the media) and Paul Cruickshank.

I believe the headline may grab you -- in regard to the success of the "Let's Bomb us a Secular Country" strategy to fighting terrorists:

The Iraq Effect: War has increased terrorist seven fold worldwide

Our study shows that the Iraq War has generated a stunning sevenfold increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and thousands of civilian lives lost; even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one-third.

We are not making the argument that without the Iraq War, jihadist terrorism would not exist, but our study shows that the Iraq conflict has greatly increased the spread of the Al Qaeda ideological virus, as shown by a rising number of terrorist attacks in the past three years from London to Kabul, and from Madrid to the Red Sea...

... Our study shows just how counterproductive the Iraq War has been to the war on terrorism. The most recent State Department report on global terrorism states that the goal of the United States is to identify, target, and prevent the spread of "jihadist groups focused on attacking the United States or its allies [and those groups that] view governments and leaders in the Muslim world as their primary targets." Yet, since the invasion of Iraq, attacks by such groups have risen more than sevenfold around the world. And though few Americans have been killed by jihadist terrorists in the past three years it is wishful thinking to believe that this will continue to be the case, given the continued determination of militant jihadists to target the country they see as their main enemy. We will be living with the consequences of the Iraq debacle for more than a decade.

Read the whole, depressing, thing.

If the goal wasn't decreasing terrorism, but creating a permanent boost in the spending of armaments and the creation of a perpetual war that will continue beyond our lifetimes, then mission accomplished.