Critics predicted that the Iraq invasion would inflame global Islamic resentment and expand extremism

Evidence

Critics enumerated a host of potentially disastrous consequences of military intervention (Kaysen et al., 2002). It would inflame the wrath of the Muslim world; derail global efforts to eradicate terrorism spawned by the al Qaeda network and other Islamic terrorist groups; expand the ranks of ultraconservative Islamists and undermine the efforts of modernists and reformers working toward Islamic pluralism; unleash ethnic warfare on the Middle East; damage relationships and partnerships with allies in the region; subvert international laws that protect the rights of nations and ensure the equitable application of laws; undermine the United States’ moral position as a force for good by violating its own values; and burden the United States with staggering long-term costs of warfare, occupation, peacekeeping and national reconstruction. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2358

Categorization

• XREF: This is the factual backdrop of the Iraq war deliberation that the vault’s existing claims about U.S. policy rationalization (Cooper’s social-conservatism, authoritarianism) sit against.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2358