More "blowback": State Department reports 30% rise in terrorist attacks

Yesterday’s post described Russia’s reaction to the plan to install a new U.S. missile defense system in Europe, a consequence I describe as "blowback."

This morning, I read a McClatchy Newspapers article, Annual terrorism report will show 29% rise in attacks. Due to be released next week by the State Department despite Condi Rice’s efforts to delay it, the report will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, “almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan….the figures for Iraq and elsewhere are limited to attacks on noncombatants and don’t include strikes against U.S. troops."

And, "The report can be expected to be used as ammunition for both sides in the domestic battle over the Iraq war. President Bush and his aides routinely call Iraq the 'central front' in Bush's war on terrorism and likely will say that the preponderance of attacks there and in Afghanistan prove their point. But critics say the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq have worsened the terrorist threat.”

You decide.