Your enemy fights back

Michael Costello notices a parallel:

A key argument used against continued foreign combat presence in Iraq is that it only incites an increase in terrorism and conflict. I have always thought this a weird argument. When you decide on war, your enemy fights back, musters all his forces and seeks to draw on additional allies and supporters.

And in any case, exactly the same argument applies in Afghanistan. By continuing to fight and hunt down the Taliban and al-Qa'ida, we incite our enemies to fight back and encourage them to proselytise and draw in new recruits for war and terrorism. No difference between Iraq and Afghanistan there.

He's not the first to make the point, of course, but it's one worth repeating.