War: the Finest "Terrorist Training Ground"

Among ever-changing and ever-proliferating rationales for the Afghan War that Washington promulgated, the least convincing of all is to destroy a terrorist training ground.

The finest training ground for all warriors -- soldiers, guerrillas, and terrorists -- is war itself. The real thing beats a simulacrum of it. Terrorists now get better training in Afghanistan than under the Taliban, as US and other troops provide live targets for practice.

Iraq is now the best terrorist training ground of all:

Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, according to a report released . . . by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.

Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries." (Dana Priest, "Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground: War Created Haven, CIA Advisers Report," Washington Post, 14 Jan. 2005, p. A1)

The more wars Washington makes, the more terrorist training grounds it creates.