President Bush is misunderestimated. He is politically astute. And he rightfully deserves credit for disingenuously linking 9/11 to Iraq. He knows exactly what he is doing. And he needs to be called out. If you
missed the President's interview with Brian Williams last night, it offers a glimpse into the desperation that now characterizes the Bush Administration's efforts to link 9/11 to Iraq.
For an Administration that eschews nuance in favor of a strict black & white worldview, there sure is a lot of nuance to their new song-and-dance on Iraq's supposed link to 9/11:
WILLIAMS: When you take a tour of the world, a lot of Americans e-mail me with their fears that, some days they just wake up and it just feels like the end of the world is near. And you go from North Korea to Iran, to Iraq, to Afghanistan, and you look at how things have changed, how Americans are viewed overseas, if that is important to you. Do you have any moments of doubt that we fought a wrong war? Or that there's something wrong with the perception of America overseas?
BUSH: Well those are two different questions, did we fight the wrong war, and absolutely -- I have no doubt -- the war came to our shores, remember that. We had a foreign policy that basically said, let's hope calm works. And we were attacked.
WILLIAMS: But those weren't Iraqis.
The Iraq war came to our shores? The wingnuts salivate at this type of rhetoric, blissfully ignorant that, of course, this statement has no basis in fact. So when Williams (or anyone for that matter) points out to the President that, um, Iraq didn't actually attack America, Bush goes to his new fallback position:
BUSH : They weren't, no, I agree, they weren't Iraqis, nor did I ever say Iraq ordered that attack, but they're a part of, Iraq is part of the struggle against the terrorists.
He never said Iraq "ordered" the 9//1 attacks. Maybe he didn't use those exact words. But how then to explain why 70% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11 just six months after the Iraq war?
Recent polling indicates that only 30% of Americans believe that Iraq was involved in 9/11, a number that is still alarmingly high.
The media need to take this to the next step. Don't simply ask Bush to acknowledge that Iraq wasn't complicit in 9/11. Ask him to explain why he thinks Iraq is part of the war on terror. He can't answer that question.
And if he wants to talk about the importance of human rights and quashing bloodthirsty dictators, let's take this "war on terror" to Sudan and the Congo, OK?