A moot point?

Like perhaps most people, I am jaded with news about Iraq, most of it bad. But I think this is worth mentioning. I once was taken a bit by surprise when a friend of mine argued for the war in Iraq, claiming that we took the war to them, assuming taking the battleground at least in part away from the States. This might be a valid point. But a recent report by the National Intelligence Estimate just came out, as reported by the NYT: "A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks." And further, "The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document." As was to be expected I suppose.