Regarding Osama bin Laden, Bush recently said:
He [bin Laden] is attempting to establish a base of operations in Iraq. He hasn't established a base in operations.
Well, I'll be damned! And here I thought Osama bin Laden was directing the violence in Iraq!
Regarding Iraq, Bush said:
Osama bin Laden was establishing an external cell there [in Iraq], or trying to, and he's been unable to do it.
Really? I thought the people who attacked us on 9/11 are fighting us in Iraq? How can the people who attacked us on 9/11 be attacking us in Iraq if they (Osama) don't have an "external cell" there?
Bush claims "al-Qaeda" is America's biggest enemy in Iraq. But reading his words closely, he admitted that "al-Qaeda" is the "smallest group" in the country. Bush said:
A clear strategy begins with a clear understanding of the enemy we face. The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein -- and they reject an Iraq in which they are no longer the dominant group. . . . The second group that makes up the enemy in Iraq is smaller, but more determined. It contains former regime loyalists who held positions of power under Saddam Hussein -- people who still harbor dreams of returning to power. These hard-core Saddamists are trying to foment anti-democratic sentiment amongst the larger Sunni community. . . . The third group is the smallest, but the most lethal: the terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda.
Personally, I think "the most lethal" part is bullshit. It's another GOP talking point to counteract the reality, as put forth by the director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, who said:
attacks by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq account for only a fraction of the insurgent violence.
I think Bush's quotes above are the more "honest" quotes. But in recent months, Bush needed to manufacture (or hype) a bogus "enemy" to justify staying the course. This is why today we repeatedly hear about "al-Qaeda in Iraq" from Bush.
If you look closely, you'll find the truth actually DOES seep out of the Bush administration even if it is rarely exposed on cable television news.
For example, Bush's director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, said it's "unlikely" (his word) that al-Qaeda would follow U.S. troops back to America once withdrawal from Iraq happens. That's because "al-Qaeda in Iraq" is not allied with Osama bin Laden. It's mostly an Iraqi group that has no desire to attack Americans. Thankfully, I think most Americans are starting to realize this reality.
In 2006, the top general at CENTCOM, John Abizaid, said:
al Qaeda in particular, in Iraq, is not popular. I don‘t believe that it can become mainstream there.
Here's my favorite piece of truth: A conservative-libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, published a report titled "The Myth of an al Qaeda Takeover of Iraq." The report says:
The notion of al Qaeda using Iraq as a sanctuary is a specter -- a canard that the perpetrators of the current catastrophe use to frighten people into supporting a fatally flawed, and seemingly endless, nation-building debacle.
Even Pentagon "war games" recently concluded al-Qaeda can't take over Iraq when the U.S. withdraws.
All of this seems so obvious to me (and probably to you, too!), but I still encounter people in my average life who think we're "fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them here." LOL! I'm reminded of the words from Major General Joseph Taluto, who is fighting in Iraq. He said "good and honest" Iraqis, not international terrorists, are fighting American forces, and that "99.9 percent" of the fighters captured are Iraqi citizens, not foreigners or "al-Qaeda."
The Iraqi government says the number of insurgents in Iraq is 200,000.
Of the 19,000 prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq, only 135 are foreigners. It confirms Gen. John Abizaid's assertion that:
The foreign fighters are not the broad majority of fighters that are taking part in the insurgency ... foreign fighters certainly aren't large in number....
Kudos to NBC News for reporting that only 2 percent of insurgents in Iraq are "al-Qaeda" fighters. Watch the video here.
I know many people will disagree with me, but I don't think there is ANYBODY in Iraq who is remotely linked to the people who attacked us on 9/11. I don't think even 2 percent of the insurgents are "al-Qaeda"-linked. But hey, that's just me! Peace, people!