Iraq war helped al-Qa'eda

The spin from the British government continues to be that the invasion of Iraq has not increased the likelihood of terrorist attack, in spite of a pre-war Joint Intelligence Committee assessment which predicted this and the obvious reality. Now the Telegraph reports that a declassified US intelligence assessment has said that

the Iraq war has helped al-Qa'eda "raise resources and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for homeland attacks".

The Tory government used to deny that there was any link between high unemployment and high crime rates. Tony Blair cleverly talked about being tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Perhaps now it's time to be tough on the causes of terrorism.