a prophetic statement regarding the Iraq war

In October 2002, as the U.S. drive for war in Iraq was building, the organization Sojourners put together a joint statement by church leaders from the U.S. and the U.K. In it, there was noted that 'To initiate a major war in an area of the world already in great turmoil could destabilize governments and increase political extremism.... It would add fuel to the fires of violence that are already consuming the region. It would exacerbate anti-American hatred and produce new recruits for terror attacks against the United States....'

Yesterday, two and a half years later, The New York Times reported on a new assessment by the CIA that '...Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.' The report went on to note that since the American invasion, Iraq has become 'a magnet and a proving ground for Islamic extremists' and is 'helping combatants learn how to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings, and other kinds of attacks....' Sojourner's words have rarely seemed more prophetic. "