Iraq and Al Quaeda: Linked but not Working Together.
In an example of the double speak that only a politician can master, President Bush today responded to the 9/11 commision's report that while Iraq had some ties to Al Quaeda, there is no evidence they collaborated on the 9/11 attacks or for that matter anything else according to an article in the Washington Times.
For a year and a half the President Bush's White House gang constantly repeated the Mantra of Iraq, Al Quaeda and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The implication seemed pretty clear then and most Americans today still think that one of the reasons for invading Iraq was the imminent hand over of Iraqi weapons of Mass Destruction to Al Quaeda Terrorists. Now mind you the idea that Saddam would hand WMDs to anyone was silly on the face of it. Saddam's number one hobby was protecting Saddam's power. He would never have let weapons out of his control, particularly giving them to those who might one day turn the weapons on him. Well now it turns out that there were no WMD stockpiles (what few weapons we have found seem to be leftovers that escaped the disarming of Iraq in the early 90s), nor was their any real cooperation between Iraq and Al Quaeda.
Of course the President's Gang is now claiming that they never fostered any perception that Saddam and Bin Ladden were working together, merely that there were connections. Of course if we were look, we would probably find similar connections in almost every Arab and Islamic State on the planet. Certainly it seems that members of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family worked as closely if not more closely with Al Quaeda as any of the member of the Iraqi government. Heck, the United States retained ties with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, that did not mean we were collaberating on much of anything.
Its time ultimately for President Bush and indeed all our politicians to admit when they were wrong. Just say it Mr. President, three little words, "I was wrong". Are they that hard? Will the world come tumbling down if you admit that in retrospect, perhaps invading Iraq was not as imperative as you originally thought?
Perhaps if the President would admit he made a mistake people both in the United States and around the world would stop thinking that he is trying to push an agenda that is more for the good of oil companies than it is for the good of either the Iraqi or American people.
For a year and a half the President Bush's White House gang constantly repeated the Mantra of Iraq, Al Quaeda and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The implication seemed pretty clear then and most Americans today still think that one of the reasons for invading Iraq was the imminent hand over of Iraqi weapons of Mass Destruction to Al Quaeda Terrorists. Now mind you the idea that Saddam would hand WMDs to anyone was silly on the face of it. Saddam's number one hobby was protecting Saddam's power. He would never have let weapons out of his control, particularly giving them to those who might one day turn the weapons on him. Well now it turns out that there were no WMD stockpiles (what few weapons we have found seem to be leftovers that escaped the disarming of Iraq in the early 90s), nor was their any real cooperation between Iraq and Al Quaeda.
Of course the President's Gang is now claiming that they never fostered any perception that Saddam and Bin Ladden were working together, merely that there were connections. Of course if we were look, we would probably find similar connections in almost every Arab and Islamic State on the planet. Certainly it seems that members of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family worked as closely if not more closely with Al Quaeda as any of the member of the Iraqi government. Heck, the United States retained ties with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, that did not mean we were collaberating on much of anything.
Its time ultimately for President Bush and indeed all our politicians to admit when they were wrong. Just say it Mr. President, three little words, "I was wrong". Are they that hard? Will the world come tumbling down if you admit that in retrospect, perhaps invading Iraq was not as imperative as you originally thought?
Perhaps if the President would admit he made a mistake people both in the United States and around the world would stop thinking that he is trying to push an agenda that is more for the good of oil companies than it is for the good of either the Iraqi or American people.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home