The Cow Got Loose and Killed the Butcher

I don't normally post on Saturday, but for anyone stopping by who doesn't check out Whiskey Bar, here's a NY Times article Billmon notes that throws a big monkeywrench into the wingnut "Flypaper Strategy:"

A growing number of Islamic militants from northern and sub-Saharan Africa are fighting American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, fueling the insurgency with foot soldiers and some financing, American military officials say...

Some recruits have joined the network of the militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which has carried out many of the sophisticated attacks and suicide car-bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in the past several weeks, the officials said.

A small vanguard of veterans are also returning home to countries like Morocco and Algeria, poised to use skills they learned on the battlefield in Iraq, from bomb making to battle planning, against their native governments, the officials said....

Among the local terrorist groups is the Salafist Group in Algeria, which abducted 32 European tourists in early 2003.

On Tuesday, the Algerian group claimed responsibility for a surprise attack last Saturday against an isolated Mauritanian Army outpost that left 15 Mauritanians and 9 insurgents dead. The group said in a message posted on a Web site in Arabic that the assault was a direct response to the training exercises that were "put in place by the enemy of God, America, and its agents in the region," The Associated Press reported...

Not all northern African militants turning up in Iraq belong to a group like Salafist or the Moroccan Islamist Combatant Group. But the skills they learn and the connections they make with other insurgents there is making Iraq a training ground and networking hub for terrorists, these officials say.

"They're getting to use those training skills, hone them and eventually go somewhere else and use them," one defense official said. "The bottom line is you've developed a new extremist. It doesn't paint a pretty picture down the road."

As a result, the US military is now setting up counterinsurgency training in some of these countries. But that also means you can expect terrorist actions in the same, which I don't think counts as a "success," unless by success, you mean more bombings, shootings, and general mayhem.

Some claim the US hasn't been attacked since 9/11, which isn't entirely true (the anthrax mailings were post 9/11). But terrorism has been on the increase globally since that time...which the US, purportedly the "leader" against terrorism, seems to ignore. This is not lost on the minds of those who've been affected, either directly or indirectly, by terrorist actions.

And the Flypaper Strategy seems to have, in wingnut minds, a follow up--the Bury-Your-Head-in-the-Sand Strategy.