"The United States may be able to defeat, even destroy, Al Qaeda, but it cannot rid the world of terrorism, much less evil."

(Me: - especially when the US tries to combat terrorism with more terrorism, albeit perpetrated by a uniformed armed service.)

Published on Monday, January 12, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times

War College Study Calls Iraq a 'Detour'

Institute's report warns anti-terror campaign may launch 'open-ended and gratuitous conflict.'

by Chuck Neubauer and Ken Silverstein

WASHINGTON - A report published by the Army War College criticizes the Bush administration's
global war on terrorism as "unfocused" and contends that the war in Iraq is "unnecessary"
and a "detour" that has diverted attention and resources from the threat posed by Al Qaeda.

The report warns that the administration's global war on terrorism may have set the United States "on a course of open-ended and gratuitous conflict with states and non-state entities that pose no serious threat to the United States."

The report by Jeffrey Record, a visiting research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of
the Army War College, calls for downsizing the war on terrorism and focusing instead on the
threat from Al Qaeda, the terror network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon as well as other sites around the world.

"The global war on terrorism as presently defined and conducted is strategically unfocused,
promises much more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate U.S. military and other
resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security," Record wrote, concluding his
56-page monograph. "The United States may be able to defeat, even destroy, Al Qaeda, but it cannot rid the world of terrorism, much less evil."

Record calls the war in Iraq "an unnecessary preventative war" that has "diverted attention
and resources away from securing the American
homeland against further assault by an
undeterrable Al Qaeda." The Iraq war was a
"detour" from the war on terrorism, he said.

The Army War College, located in Carlisle, Pa.,
trains military and civilian officials in the
theory and application of military strategy using
land-based forces. The report contains a
disclaimer stating that it does not necessarily
represent the views of the Army, the Pentagon or
the U.S. government.

In the foreword to the report, found on the
Internet at
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/2003/bounding/bounding.pdf
, Douglas C. Lovelace Jr., the institute's
director, said the monograph was offered "as a
contribution to the national security debate over
the aims and course of the war on terrorism."

Record, a former staff member for the Senate
Armed Services Committee, has written six books
on military issues. He also teaches at the Air
Force's Air War College in Montgomery, Ala.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the
Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based
research organization that focuses on military
affairs, said: "There's no question that Iraq has
diverted U.S. attention from the war on
terrorism. However, [the U.S.] invaded Iraq to
resolve a potentially more serious threat that
American intelligence indicated was quite urgent
- that being the threat of weapons of mass
destructionS. All intelligence estimates pointed
to an urgent threat."

Daniel Benjamin, a member of the National
Security Council staff in the late 1990s, said,
"The criticism does not seem out of line with
many of the conversations I have had with
officers in every branch of the military."

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times