Army War College Study Blasts U.S. War on Terrorism

Yahoo! News - Army War College Study Blasts U.S. War on Terrorism: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iraq (news - web sites) invasion was 'an unnecessary preventive war of choice' that has robbed resources and attention from the more critical fight against al Qaeda in a hopeless U.S. quest for absolute security, according to a study recently published by the U.S. Army War College.

The 56-page document written by Jeffrey Record, a veteran defense expert who serves as a visiting research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College, represents a blistering assessment of what President Bush (news - web sites) calls the U.S. global war on terrorism.
Pentagon (news - web sites) officials on Monday said Record was entitled to his opinion, but reiterated Bush's view that Iraq is the 'central front' in the war on terrorism.
Record urged U.S. leaders to refocus Bush's broad war to target Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, and its allies. Record said the Iraq war was a detour from real anti-terrorism efforts.
Record criticized the Bush administration for lumping together al Qaeda and President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Iraq 'as a single, undifferentiated terrorist threat.'
'This was a strategic error of the first order because it ignored critical differences between the two in character, threat level and susceptibility to U.S. deterrence and military action,' Record wrote.
'The result has been an unnecessary preventive war of choice against a deterred Iraq that has created a new front in the Middle East for Islamic terrorism and diverted attention and resources away from securing the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable al Qaeda,' R"



here is the link to the report < hpp > 01/12 14:42:27

"The author examines three features of the war on terrorism as currently defined and conducted: (1) the administration's postulation of the terrorist threat, (2) the scope and feasibility of U.S. war aims, and (3) the war's political, fiscal, and military sustainability. He believes that the war on terrorism--as opposed to the campaign against al-Qaeda--lacks strategic clarity, embraces unrealistic objectives, and may not be sustainable over the long haul. He calls for downsizing the scope of the war on terrorism to reflect concrete U.S. security interests and the limits of American military power."


www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/2003/bounding/bounding.htm