“Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem worse? Not likely.”

— Christopher Hitchens

A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq (Plume, 2003) [published in the United Kingdom as Regime Change]; quoted in "The Genocidal Imagination of Christopher Hitchens" http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/seymour261105.html by Richard Seymour, Monthly Review (2005-11-26): On the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2000s, 2005

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Christopher Hitchens 305

British American author and journalist 1949–2011

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“Al-Qaeda is still the biggest threat for Iraq and the region.”

Nouri al-Maliki (1950) Prime Minister of Iraq

As quoted in "Only 'one in five Iraqis' has confidence in coalition" http://www.24dash.com/news/57/18079/index.htm (March 2007), 24Dash.

“There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq, until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Speech in Columbus, Ohio (27 February 2008)
2008

“And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Remarks on death of Osama bin Laden (May 2011)
Context: On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.
We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda — an organization headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.

“It's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq. That's well known. We continue to be concerned about the Iranians taking al-Qaeda into Iran and training them and sending them back…. I am sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda, not al-Qaeda, I am sorry.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

During an official visit in Amman, Jordon, making a statement and then being corrected by Senator Joe Lieberman http://web.archive.org/web/20080324115205/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gtqD_x9yYIuq_7S2dimSjMV5qRmg (18 March 2008)
2000s, 2008

“If Abu Musab Zarqawi's camps in Iraq are connected to al-Qaeda, why didn't the U. S. already attack them as part of the War on Terrorism after September 11, 2001? It's as if the U. S. preserved Ansar al-Islam for later use for leverage over Iraq and an excuse for an invasion.”

Carl Romanelli (1959) American artist

on Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech at the United Nations
[February 10, 2003, http://www.gp.org/press/pr_02_10_03.html, Press release: "Greens Challenge Powell's Speech at the U.N.", U.S. Green Party, 2006-08-17]

“The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States. Just yesterday, the International Institute of Strategic Studies reported that the Iraq conflict " has arguably focused the energies and resources of Al Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition." The ISS said that in the wake of the war in Iraq Al Qaeda now has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Quotes, NYU Speech (2004)

“As you know, there are al-Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they're moving back into Iraq.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

The Hugh Hewitt Show. , http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=ae522a49-6c82-4791-a76e-44ebb718bf32
2000s, 2008

“There is information showing that in the 1993-1994 period bin Laden began to work with Sudan and Iraq to acquire a CBRN capability for al Qaeda.”

Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst

Through Our Enemies Eyes (p. 124) Scheuer later retracted this statement. https://archive.is/nLW4y.
2000s

“The war on terror is an abstraction. But the terrorists are real people and they are not all alike. Most of the people attacking our soldiers in Iraq originally had nothing to do with al Qaeda. They have been generated by the policies of the Bush administration. We have been spared a terrorist attack at home but it is quite a stretch to attribute that to the invasion of Iraq. The insurrection in Iraq, however, is a somber reality and it doesn't make us safer at home. Our security, far from improving as President Bush claims, is deteriorating.”

George Soros (1930) Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Speech at the National Press Club (2004)

“The occupation of Iraq is completely self-perpetuating: The worse things get the more we are obliged to stay. And the longer we stay the worse things get. Wonderful, no? Being trapped in Iraq, moreover, has clearly prevented us from tackling Iran with any traction. One argument commonly made for staying in Iraq makes no sense to me at all. It's McCain's "if we leave, they will follow us home." But if we stay, they can follow us home as well. And by staying, we have clearly created more of them to follow us. The second argument that fails to convince is that by leaving, we give al Qaeda a propaganda coup. Yes, we would, and it would be intellectually dishonest to deny that. Any argument for withdrawal needs to take that into account. But by staying and losing, we also give al Qaeda a propaganda coup. And by constantly giving al Qaeda an anti-imperial narrative, we also prevent Muslims and Arabs from recognizing them for what they are: not anti-imperial liberators but theo-fascists.
It's becoming clearer and clearer to me that if we want to win this long war, we have to leave Iraq. Sooner rather than later.”

Andrew Sullivan (1963) Journalist, writer, blogger

"Iraq and Gaza, Ctd" http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/06/iraq_and_gaza_c.html, The Daily Dish (14 June 2007)

“Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem worse? Not likely.”

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