NYTimes: Iraq Is a Hub for Terrorism, However You Define It

"A superpower invaded an impoverished Islamic nation. Guerrillas responded with AK-47's and rocket-propelled grenades. A generation of warriors was born, eager to wage jihad.
That was Afghanistan in the 1980's. It became a breeding ground for terrorists - most infamously Osama bin Laden - who exported their deadly skills throughout the world. In Iraq, some of the same conditions that nurtured terrorism in the mountains of Afghanistan have emerged in the power vacuum created by the American occupation, Iraqis and terrorism experts say.
"Unfortunately Iraq has become a cause célèbre for radical jihadists the way that Afghanistan did a decade and a half ago," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst at the RAND Corporation. "You've got a lot of the same conditions that allowed Afghanistan to become a hub for terrorists."
Those include porous borders, swaths of lawless land and regions of the country harboring well-armed groups that are neither part of the government nor under its control, Mr. Hoffman said.
He defined terrorists in terms of tactics - using suicide car bombs rather than conventional weapons, for example. Since the civil war in Lebanon, the line between terrorism and insurgency has blurred, he said, with Iraq being a perfect example.
There has been an average of one car bomb a day this month. More than 100 civilians have been killed.
Assassinations of Iraqi government officials and sabotage of crucial sites like oil pipelines are on the rise. American and Iraqi forces seem unable to prevent the carnage, fueling hatred of the occupation among the population.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a spokesman for the occupation forces, said that reconstruction work like opening health clinics and renovating schools had brightened the lives of Iraqis. But "are we satisfied with the level of instability in this country right now?" he said. "Absolutely not.". . .
The failure now to control borders has allowed foreign fighters to enter Iraq. Unguarded overland crossings exist between Iraq and its neighbors Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, each of which has its share of radical Islamic groups.
Falah al-Naqib, the new Iraqi interior minister, said the suicide car bombs were a sign that foreign fighters had infiltrated Iraq, and that "some parties and countries want to demolish this country." He said Iraqis do not use such tactics. And he added that he "won't hesitate" to declare martial law if more deadly bombings take place.
Ahmed Hashim, a professor at the United States Naval War College who studies the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, also attributed much of the violence to the porous borders and the fact that the American presence has become a magnet for jihadists.
"I think terrorism has come to Iraq as a result of the war," he said. "The country has unpatrolled and open borders, so all kinds of extremists who want to fight America have an excellent playing field to do so now."
A senior American military official wrote in an e-mail message that the fighters enter through old smuggling routes that follow tribal connections. These are like the routes used by mujahedeen to enter Afghanistan."