Apparently, the jihadis of the world had no reason to hate us before the Iraq War. Now we’ve gone and made them angry: Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting U.S. Terror Fight.

The war in Iraq has become the primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers are increasing faster than the United States and its allies are eliminating the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded.

A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the “centrality” of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda. Rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, it concludes that the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document.

“It’s a very candid assessment,” one intelligence official said yesterday of the estimate, the first formal examination of global terrorist trends written by the National Intelligence Council since the March 2003 invasion. “It’s stating the obvious.”

Yes, that’s right—it is stating the obvious. When you fight a war against a highly motivated (read: fanatical) foe, it’s obvious that the enemy will fight back. It’s obvious that they’ll try to recruit more warriors, it’s obvious they’ll use every tool and propaganda opportunity. They may even get stronger, for a time.

It’s also become obvious recently that Western media will willingly aid the enemy spread propaganda.

Did the National Intelligence Council expect the jihadis to just surrender? Did they expect us to surrender?

Why is this even news? (I know, I know—because it can be used to try to hurt the Bush administration.)