Annan told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday that many young Muslims are angry, and the situation has been exacerbated by what is happening in Iraq.
"They feel victimized in their own society; they feel victimized in the West. And they feel there's profiling against them," he said. "And the Iraqi situation has not helped matters."
Annan added: "One used to be worried about Afghanistan being the center of terrorist activities. My sense is that Iraq has become a major problem and in fact is worse than Afghanistan."
So let's examine this train of thought, shall we?
Young Moslems are angry. We'll just assume they are justified, shall we? Iraqis are freed and no longer murdered in mass numbers by their own government and this naturally pisses off young Moslems--against America and not Saddam's brutal regime. Other Moslems invade Iraq to stop democracy and slaughter children and this pisses off Moslems--against America and not the jihadis. You know, this is just one of those times that I don't care if these people are angry. What won't piss them off if saving Moslems does it time and time again.
Victmized in their own society? Well blame America. Who else? Can't blame their own societies! That makes too much sense and is far too straightforward for any self-respecting conspiracy monger. Victmized in the West? Yeah, freely immigrating, being allowed to practice their own religion, and going on the public dole are all pretty evil things for the West to do. We won't mention that Moslem immigrants to America freely succeed in our society and join our country rather than conspire against it as they do in Europe. That would really be an unfair argument. As for profiling, well running off to join the jihad or shouting "death to America" in every camera lens you see will undermine that unfair stereotype, eh?
And the last part, that Annan thinks Iraq is turning into a training haven for terrorists worse than Afghanistan under the Taliban? Sheer rock-pounding idiocy. Shoot, Saddam's Iraq was a training ground for terrorists. Iraq now is no haven. Terrorists have invaded free Iraq and we and our Iraqi allies hunt them down and kill or arrest them. This is not being trained and finding refuge. This is getting hunted down and killed. Anybody who gets out alive is lucky, but this is hardly a graduation ceremony when 98% of your classmates are hunting raisins or virgins or whatever the hell they think they earned in the next life. This is consistent with the loopy idea that Iraq is decimating our military and simultaneiously training the jihadis to higher levels of quality. That is so backwards I hardly know where to begin.
Iraq was a major problem that is in the process of being solved. Indeed, Iraqis kill terrorists every day instead of sending them forth to kill as Saddam did. One day, Iraq will be an asset to the international community fighting terrorists outside of Iraq.
How can we allow Kofi Annan to continue to serve as the personification of the international community? Oh yeah, he reflects it. Silly me.
