A classified CIA report described in the New York Times today says that Iraq has become “a real-world laboratory for urban combat,” with foreign nationals entering the country to learn urban warfare techniques and then exfiltrating back into their home states.

The Bush administration has and continues to argue that Iraq is serving as “flypaper” for terrorists, drawing them in to that conflict and thereby preventing them from troubling our shores. It’s an argument that never made sense — it seems unlikely that the 911 hijackers would have abandoned their plans to attack the US in favor of fighting in Iraq, had the opportunity been available at the time — and has now been officially put paid by the CIA report.

The White House, however, continues to defend the flypaper thesis. In a fascinating exchange with a reporter today, White House press secretary Scott McClellan launched himself into an Orwellian sky without a net.

Q Scott, how concerned is the administration about the potential for Iraq to become a sort of training ground for Islamic extremists who may go back to their home countries and use these techniques to destabilize their governments? There’s a new report on that recently.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let me mention a couple things. As the President has said for some time now, Iraq is a central front in the war on terrorism. Wherever you stood before the decision to go into Iraq, I think we can all recognize that the terrorists have made it a central front in the war on terrorism. That’s why, as the President said earlier today, we are fighting the terrorists in Iraq so that we don’t have to fight them here at home. And that’s where things are. And that’s why the terrorists understand how high the stakes are. We understand how high the stakes are. And that’s why it’s so important that we succeed in Iraq, because when we succeed in Iraq and Afghanistan, that will be — those will be major blows to the terrorists and their ideology that they seek to spread.

Q The report suggested that there’s concern that Egyptians, Jordanians and others will go back to their home countries, using the techniques they’ve learned in Iraq to destabilize those countries.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I don’t know what your question is.

Q Are you concerned about that? Do you think there’s potential for that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Iraq is a central front in the war on terrorism. In terms of what’s your question on it, I think you’re making the assumption that these individuals would just be sitting around sipping tea, as Secretary Rice likes to refer to in her previous comments. So I don’t know what your question is regarding that.

Q The training and the hosting –

MR. McCLELLAN: These are dangerous individuals that are operating in Iraq, and we’re on the offensive, going after them, working with Iraqi security forces to defeat them in Iraq, so that — we’re fighting them there, so that we don’t have to fight them here. This is all part of the war on terrorism, and that’s why we’re going after them and seeking to bring them to justice.

Q Just following up on that question, you said at the outset of that, the terrorists have made it a central front in the war on terrorism. I thought it was a central front in the war on terrorism before we invaded.

MR. McCLELLAN: It is. It’s part of the war on terrorism, yes.

Q It was.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, it is.

Q It is now —

MR. McCLELLAN: Both.

Q Was it prior to —

MR. McCLELLAN: Both. It’s part of the war on terrorism, David.

And there you have it: Iraq was a central front in the War on Terror before there were any terrorists there, and it remains one now.

According to the Times, “officials said [the report] made clear that the war was likely to produce a dangerous legacy by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict.” Among the countries said to be most concerned about an influx of battle-hardened bad guys are Jordan and Saudi Arabia, both of which share borders with Iraq.

Among the arguments opponents of the war advanced prior to the invasion was that it would serve as a recruiting bonanza for terrorist organizations. The CIA report indicates that the argument has not only been tragically vindicated, but that the legacy of the war may equal that of the Soviet war in Afghanistan in creating a potent force of well-trained terrorists who will disperse from the war zone into their own and other countries.

So while the administration looked upon Iraq as the lead domino in the democratization of the Middle East, the war may well have made it the lead domino in the destabilization of the region. It’s this sort of demonically brilliant stupidity that once brought out the villagers with their pitchforks and torches. In our time, we settle for exasperated sighs and headlines like, “We Knew It Was A Monster All Along.”

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