The Far East was already fragile prior to the US invading Iraq on false pretences. A classified report from US intelligence agencies called “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States” concludes that terrorism is now being fuelled by the war on Iraq.

Agencies “found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.”
New York Times

The discussion about the real motivating factors that led to the war in Iraq, the control of petrol by the US/UK rather than Russia/France that were successfully courting Saddam Hussein, has faded to a whisper. The cost in human lives alone to control the petrol in Iraq is enormous, but this report indicates that secondary effects may be more devastating.

A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the “centrality” of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda.
Washington Post

Although this does sound pretty logical, a previous NIE report had concluded Iraq was continuing to make weapons of mass destruction which became part of the pretext for the war on Iraq. The same report only described Bin Laden as a ‘terrorist financier’, with no mention of Al-Qaeda !
The Bush government explains it is fighting a war on terrorism. The report’s findings contest the effectiveness of how Bush has engaged the war on terror; top US intelligence agencies conclude the war on Iraq is directly helping terrorists to recruit. Are these findings the prelude to a succession of grounds to leave Iraq ? Even if such a move is likely to prompt civil war ?