WASHINGTON,
April 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Dealing a
heavy blow to the Bush administration’s claims that the world would
be more secure after the US-led wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, a US
report revealed the number of attacks around the world has increased
by more than three folds in 2004.
“The
large increases in terrorist attacks reported in 2004 may undermine
administration claims of success in the war on terror,”
Representative Henry Waxman wrote in a letter to Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, asking that statistical numbers on “the
international terrorist attacks” be restored to the department’s
annual report “Patterns of Global Terrorism,” Reuters reported on
Wednesday, April 26.
The
United States defines as “terrorist” any attack that kills or
seriously injures one person or causes more than 10,000 US dollars
worth of damage, regardless of any other elements surrounding the
attack or attempt to do either of those things. Of course the US count
does not include civilians killed by US fire whether in Afghanistan or
occupied Iraq.
Earlier
this month, the US State Department said it had decided not to publish
annual statistics on the number of attacks it deems “terrorist” or
resulting casualties, claiming that discrepancies were found in
figures released last year documenting attacks that had occurred in
2003.
Last
year, the State Department initially released erroneous figures that
understated the attacks and casualties in 2003 and used the figures to
argue that the Bush administration was prevailing in its so-called
“war on terrorism”.
“According
to the data being concealed from the public, global terror attacks
were more than three times higher in 2004 than the record levels set
in 2003,” Waxman stressed.
Statistical
numbers withheld from the annual US report on “terrorist attacks”
showed a dramatic rise in the number of attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and elsewhere from about 175 in 2003 to around 650 in 2004.
The
US State Department claims that the surge in the attacks was partly
attributed to the increased violence in India and Pakistan related to
the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim, and the
devotion of more manpower to the US monitoring effort, which resulted
in more attacks being counted.
Iraq
Attacks Rage
 |
|
And
where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago,”
Myers said. (Reuters)
|
The
US Congressional Representative also said despite US claims of winning
in the war against “insurgents” in Iraq, the number of attacks has
increased to 198 in 2004, up from only 22 in 2003, Reuters said.
“In
Iraq, where we are spending billions to restore order, terrorist
attacks were nine times higher in 2004 than in 2003,” said Waxman.
Washington
refers to attacks targeting its occupation troops in Iraq as
“insurgent” attacks, instead of using the internationally
recognized term “resistance”.
On
April 22, an Italian judge
said in the legal foundations of an earlier ruling that “attacking
military or state targets, even with ‘suicide bombers’, cannot be
considered terrorism in times of war or occupation”
The
Bush administration claims its invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq was
staged as a mission to bring democracy to the oil-rich Arab country
and to thus serve as a model to others in the region.
Earlier
Tuesday, US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Richard Myers said
despite all efforts of the US forces in Iraq, the rate of attacks of
the Iraqi “insurgents” is as strong now as it was a year ago,
according to the BBC News Online.
“I
think their capacity stays about the same. And where they are right
now is where they were almost a year ago,” Myers told reporters.
He,
however, claimed that it was too early to say if a recent surge of
attacks amounted to a concerted campaign, and insisted that US-backed
forces were “winning”.
“I
think we're definitely winning - I think we've been winning for some
time,” he said.
Nonetheless,
the BBC said it is clear that the optimism or even euphoria that
gripped America’s military leadership after what they said was
“the success of the Iraqi elections in January” has now
dissipated.
In
November 2004, a pentagon report revealed that the United States was
alienating Muslims worldwide and losing the “the war of ideas”
because of adopting faulty policies and what is perceived as
“self-serving hypocrisy”.
In
August of the same year, Condoleezza Rice admitted failure to win the
Muslims’ hearts and minds.
