Moamer Kadhafi misses the big picture somewhat...

From Yahoo/AFP comes this story: bq. Fall of Saddam has allowed terrorism to bloom: Kadhafi The fall of Saddam Hussein has allowed terrorism, and notably Islamic extremism like that of Osama bin Laden, to flourish in Iraq, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said, describing terror as a threat to the security of the whole world. bq. "Saddam's fall has not brought terrorism to an end," Kadhafi said in a televised speech on Wednesday. bq. "Far from it: it has found a bigger opportunity to flourish," he said, addressing an audience of Libyan police officers. bq. "The Al-Qaeda network did not exist before in Iraq, and now it is there, along with the renegades," said Kadhafi. Where he misses the point is that it is not one group in one place. This is a Stateless War. The majority of the Middle East is suffering from an inability to look inward, to self-examine to see the cause of their crushing spiritual, intellectual and economic failure so they seek to find the cause. They point the finger of blame to the west. The USA is the biggest success in their eyes (at least in the intellectual and economic arenas) so that is "The Great Satan". Past administrations ignored this threat until it was forcibly brought home on 9/11. Now, we have a President who sees this evil for what it is and is determined to root it out for the overall benefit of the world - the Middle East included. Since our presence is in Iraq, that is where all the "faithful" are coming to wage their holy war and we are giving it to them. I would much rather have that happening there in one spot than isolated instances of terrorism in the rest of the world. As Bush said in a speech a few months ago. Bring it on. The war in Iraq is much more than ridding the world of a scumbag dictator and tyrant - it is hanging flypaper out for every fascist who wants to come to the party... UPDATE: A reader reminded me offline that the Yahoo/AFP means that the story here is carried on the web by Yahoo but the original story was filed by AFP -- Agence France-Presse -- not exactly the most un-biased media source when it comes to reporting the USA and Coalition forces working to clean up the mess of terrorism. Especially since this is a story of a great win for the USA and the Coalition forces and that France stands to loose a lot because it has been selling arms to Libya. Quaddafi was lecturing a group of policemen after all, not a diplo team...