teribus - Going after al qaeda in Iraq is going in the wrong direction. Al qaeda is present throughout the Muslim world and the only reason they are now in Iraq is because of the U.S. invasion. The more often the Muslim world views the U.S. as the aggressor, the more recruits al Qaeda will have. If the U.S. really wanted to go after al Qaeda, they would concentrate their efforts on the Afghan/Pakistan border where they train their recruits. Why is the U.S. in Iraq and not in Pakistan?

"While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the United States as being at war with Islam," reports Steven Kull, principal investigator in the study and editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

That mentality sheds some light on why al Qaeda, dispersed and under U.S. assault, can continue to draw recruits. "Our research does show that anti-American feelings do make it easier for al Qaeda to operate and to grow in the Muslim world," says Kull, a leading analytical pollster of international trends."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070523/23muslims.htm