The Historical Questions about Today's Terrorist Plot

There are details and then there are the larger historical questions when certain events occur. The great historical questions that arise from today's attempted terrorist plot to bring down trans-Atlantic flights will be debated for years.

The questions:

1. Did the U.S. invasion of Iraq allow Muslim extremists to radicalize the younger generation of Muslims in western societies?

2. Did the invasion of Iraq create fewer or more terrorists?

3. Did the invasion of Iraq bring us closer to winning the war on terror, or prolong it and create a larger battlefield for the war?

4. Will Iraq be seen as a watershed event in the history of the American Empire, or just another worthless Vietnam adventure?