Before the invasion their was no terrorists in Iraq, Saddam was pretty effective in suppressing them, especially the Shia organizations in the South. Even now the Iraqi Ministry of Information estimates that 80% of the insurgency is home grown. Al queda in Iraq started out as just a bunch of sacked former soldiers and civil servants who wanted to cash in on the world-known name of AQ, the same thing happened in Algeria, Somalia, Afghanistan etc. It's unfortunate because it gives off the false impression that AQ is a centralized international organization with a rigid command and direction, when in fact it's the same as it was 10 years ago - ie people fighting over local problems using big names for groups to make their petty squabbles seem more important, African rebel groups have been doing this for decades, it's how they got the US involved in helping so many stupid causes.