Here's the "Declassified Key Judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States dated April 2006." Among other things, the NIE, which Democrats have embraced, indicates that a jihadist failure in Iraq would hurt their cause. It will be interesting to listen to Democrats explain how their troop withdrawal plans for Iraq would hasten that failure. As I noted earlier today, Democrats can't even convince sympathetic generals to buy into what they're selling on the cut-and-run front. Sen. McConnell has it right:
Whoever leaked this report forgot to mention a key finding of the intelligence community: If we defeat the terrorists in Iraq, there will be fewer terrorists inspired to carry on the fight. In other words, defeating terrorists in Iraq not only secures that new democracy, but prevents future attacks here at home. This is a dramatically different message than the selective leaks to the media. It's important to remember that terror attacks against the United States didn't start the day our troops entered Baghdad, and they won't end if we leave Iraq to the terrorists.
Also, Robert Kagan makes some excellent points on the NIE in today's Washington Post.