Reuters reports: A study released on Wednesday reports a decline in fatal attacks of terrorism worldwide and says U.S. think-tank data showing sharp increases were distorted due to the inclusion of killings in Iraq. “Even if the Iraq ‘terrorism’ data are included, there has still been a substantial decline in the global terrorism toll,” said the 2007 Human Security Brief, an annual report funded by the governments of Canada, Norway,

From time to time to time, I have looked at the issue of whether criticism of Islamic fundamentalism, and the Afghan and Iraq campaigns, are counter-productive in the sense that they breed more terrorists.  So far the answer seems to have been that the increases in terrorist incidents have been almost entirely in Iraq, and that critics of Operation Iraqi Freedom (and the subset in the media) like to have

Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank have a new piece posted at Mother Jones claiming that “The Iraq Effect” has increased terrorism sevenfold worldwide.  It’s already been picked up by the HuffPo and will likely burble its way through the Left part of the blogosphere after making Memeorandum. As my first guest-posts here—“Are Terrorists Doritos?” and “Are Terrorists Doritos? (Part 2… Hey!)”—are on this very topic, it is worth briefly noting

At The American Prospect, Spencer Ackerman would like to tell you about the Obama Doctrine in foreign policy.  At least, he would like to relay the spin from Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers: They envision a doctrine that first ends the politics of fear and then moves beyond a hollow, sloganeering “democracy promotion” agenda in favor of “dignity promotion,” to fix the conditions of misery that breed anti-Americanism and prevent