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I am of the opinion that the war in Iraq is guilty of both fighting and fuelling terrorism as these are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I feel that the war has opened the eyes of the public to what was already there and what, to some extent, was ignored by the rest of the world.
If you want to prove that the war fuels terrorism that the facts and figures can show this but conversely the same can be said for the argument that the war fights terrorism.

It can be proven that the war fuels terrorism because, as we see and here, suicide bombs and car bombs shake Iraq daily whereas we never heard this before. Also the US and UK have heightened levels of security since the start of the war, but this threat is not new, and nor is the death to innocent civilians in Iraq. Many Iraqi civilians were ruthlessly murdered under Saddam Hussein's regime but this was not widely reported as this did not involve the West.
To think that heightened security levels mean the threat is any larger is not necessarily true, the tragic events of 9/11 in the US and 7/7 in the UK show that the deadly threat was already there, it was just not taken seriously enough.

On the other hand it can be proven that the war is fighting terrorism as there have been many arrests and quashing of terrorist forces and factions both in Iraq and across the world, the increased news and political coverage has increased pressure on nations to take this problem seriously and has brought the issue to the forefront of international attention. No country wants to be seen as a harbourer of terrorists (and consequently a terrorist nation) and recently when Pakistan was touted as a major source of Islamic extremism a Pakistani spokesperson not only rejected the idea that Pakistan was a safe-haven for terrorists but went as far as to say that they were the only country to have actively disrupted al-Qaeda.

In summary I feel that there is no definitive answer to if the war has fought or fuelled terrorism but that the war has raised our awareness of terrorism and extremist views both governmentally and to civilians and although in the short term it appears to have increased terrorist activities, in the long term I think that the war will have a positive effect on the fight against terror.

Learn more about this author, David Lawrence.
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