Sen. Barack Obama retorted to John McCain (item below) thusly:

“I have some news for John McCain, and that is there was no such thing as al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”

Cute comeback, but the Senate voted to liberate Iraq 77-23. In an election, such lopsided votes are called landslides.

But Obama voices a position common on the left: the Iraq war created new terrorists. This is certainly an arguable position, but ultimately unknowable. Did Omar in Damascus drop his plans to become a plumber and take up jihad because Saddam was toppled?

Say there’s a cohort of young Muslim men predisposed to radical jihad. The US invades and they now have ready-made targets upon which to focus their energies. Instead of plotting to blow up western targets in the west, they plot to destroy western targets in the Middle East.

Is that bad for America? Europe?

Finally, the Left seems oblivious to the psychological benefits of defeating an enemy. Osama bin Laden famously decried the US as a paper tiger after watching us run from fights. Now, it’s Osama hiding in a cave watching news accounts of how Al Qaeda in Iraq is being pulverized by the combined forces of the US and the Iraqis.

How does this play for potential jihadis? Again, that’s unknowable. But it’s likely that Omar’s friends who stayed behind realize their pal is dead, that maybe his cause was a bit nutty and that maybe life is worth living.