Nonsense. The "distraction" argument is the most obvious 
    nonsense. What exactly is the U.S. not doing in the war 
    on terrorism that it would be doing if it weren't in 
    Iraq? We are supporting a fiercely antiterrorist 
    democratic government in Afghanistan, hunting al-Qaeda in 
    the impossible terrain on the Pakistani frontier, 
    coordinating with just about every secret service in the 
    world to disrupt terrorist communications, movement and 
    funding. What is it about Iraq that "distracts"?

    As for the recruitment claim, when was the seminal period 
    of al-Qaeda recruitment--indeed, the period during which 
    it created its entire worldwide infrastructure? The 
    1990s. No invasion of Iraq. No invasion of Afghanistan. 
    The Clinton years saw the most open, accommodating, 
    apologetic U.S. foreign policy since World War II. In 
    fact, the 1990s was the decade of Muslim rescue: the U.S. 
    intervened militarily, and decisively, to save three 
    Muslim peoples--the Bosnians, the Kosovars and the 
    Kuwaitis--from conquest and catastrophe. Yet it was 
    precisely during that era of good feeling that al-Qaeda 
    not only recruited for but also conceived, planned and 
    set in motion the worst massacre of Americans in history. 
    So much for the connection between American perfidy and 
    anti-American terrorism.

    Al-Qaeda always invents some excuse, some historical 
    injury to justify its barbarism. Today Iraq, yesterday 
    Palestine and, when all else fails, Andalusia, a bin 
    Laden staple that refers to the Muslim loss of Spain to 
    Ferdinand and Isabella (in 1492!). Various casus belli 
    are served up as conditions change. Only the gullible and 
    the appeasers buy them. Now we're told that the Iraq 
    invasion has increased al-Qaeda recruiting.