Iraq, republican war

The mishandled war in Iraq — which had nothing to with the 9/11 attacks — has proved to be a devastating blunder. Lawrence Wright, author of a new book on al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower, says internal al-Qaeda documents show that after its rout from Afghanistan, the organization was in despair and on the ropes.

But Iraq gave al-Qaeda a new lease on life, providing a place where extremists could go and fight — and helping prove their contention that the United States wants to attack Muslims and occupy Muslim lands.

The Iraq war has undermined U.S. efforts to win hearts and minds in the moderate Muslim world. In the five predominantly Muslim countries surveyed earlier this year by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, support for the U.S.-led war on terror was only 10% in Egypt, 14% in Turkey, 16% in Jordan, 30% in Pakistan and 39% in Indonesia.