LONDON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The Iraq war has "acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world," according to a British Ministry of Defense research paper.
The report, drawn up by a Ministry of Defense researcher and leaked to the BBC Thursday, comes at a particularly uncomfortable time for London and Washington amid increasing criticism of their tactics in the "war on terror."
It lends weight to the conclusions of a U.S. intelligence report partially published by the White House Wednesday, which said that the Iraq war had spawned a new generation of global jihadists and become a cause cerebre for would-be terrorists the world over.
President George W. Bush -- who agreed to partial publication after the document was reported by the New York Times Sunday -- has rejected the report's conclusions as "naïve." However, it nevertheless represents a growing conviction among political and intelligence communities on both sides of the Atlantic that the current bullish approach to international terrorism is failing.
The British document also said that Britain had gone into Afghanistan "with its eyes closed," and revealed that a secret agreement to withdraw British troops from Iraq so that they could concentrate on the Afghan mission was thrown out when British military leaders were overruled.
The paper is understood to have been written by a man with a military background who is linked to the British Secret Intelligence Service. However the Ministry of Defense said it had been compiled for research purposes only and did not represent the government's views.
