In his post-veto campaign to justify continuing with his failed war policy, George Bush declared that:
Al-Qaida is public enemy No. 1 in Iraq.
In fact, Bush mentioned Al-Qaida no less than 27 times in a speech that covered his usual spiel; we're fighting them there, the central front in the war on terror, emboldening, surrender, and of course, September 11th. He waxed poetic about progress the Iraqi government is making, declining sectarian violence, early signs of his "surge" succeeding, and that there is no civil war, just Al-Qaida mounting "spectacular attacks" to sap the will of the American people. In fact, it seems that Al-Qaida is all that stands between the Iraqi government and a flowering democracy in the Middle East.
But today we learn that:
The number of attacks with the projectiles rose to 65 in April, said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who oversees day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq. "The overwhelming majority" were in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad, Odierno said in an interview this week. Officials have said the projectiles are used almost exclusively by Shiite fighters against U.S. military targets.
April being the month where 104 U.S. troops were killed in one of the deadliest months of this war, and in a month where it was revealed that:
A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.
But Al-Qaida is the enemy we are fighting in Iraq, and:
-- we support Prime Minister Maliki and I think he is trying to do what is best for his country.
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