This new report from a leading Israeli thinktank doesn’t tell us anything we enlightened Democrats don’t know already — but it’s good to see it receiving validation from such respectable sources.

The war in Iraq did not damage international terror groups, but instead distracted the United States from confronting other hotbeds of Islamic militancy and actually “created momentum” for many terrorists, a top Israeli security think tank said in a report released Monday.

President Bush has called the war in Iraq an integral part of the war on terrorism, saying that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein hoped to develop unconventional weapons and could have given them to Islamic militants across the world.

But the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said that instead of striking a blow against Islamic extremists, the Iraq war “has created momentum for many terrorist elements, but chiefly al-Qaida and its affiliates.”

Jaffee Center director Shai Feldman said the vast amount of money and effort the United States has poured into Iraq has deflected attention and assets from other centers of terrorism, such as Afghanistan.

It’s soothing to fantasize that this awful war in Iraq may have been worthwhile for its value in drawing in and then eliminating terrorist groups. Only problem is, it just isn’t so. In fact, it only let the truly deadly groups flourish, multiply and diversify. Oh well. Any other excuses that might justify the war in Iraq?