1 Boring Old Man

At this point, Bush was asked what Iraq had to do with 911.

This absurd exchange in his recent press conference may just seem like fuddy-duddy Bush stumbling as usual, but that’s not the case. It was something much more ominous. Says Swopa on Firedoglake:

Iraq Versus the “War on Terror”:
How Democrats Can Separate the Issues, and Win Both

During the first flush of the Democratic "No, really, we are serious about national security" counterattack last week (see Greg Sargent for a refresher if you’ve forgotten), Karl Rove an anonymous "top GOP strategist" made a revealing admission to the Washington Post :

The strategist, who is involved in GOP efforts to capitalize on the issue of national security, said one of the big challenges in the months ahead will be "making sure the terrorism issue sticks to Iraq." With some GOP candidates distancing themselves from Bush’s Iraq policy, the strategist said, it has been difficult marrying the issues of terrorism and Iraq. This is disturbing to top GOP officials because support for the war is low, and dropping, and Iraq is a bigger issue in many of the campaigns than the less-defined effort against terrorism, the strategist said. 

Even when they don’t try to tie Iraq directly to 911, they always imply that the war in Iraq has something to do with the general “War on Terror”. We’re so used to them saying it, we forget that it is absolutely not true. What is true? For review:

• Paul Wolfowitz proposed the idea of preemptive strikes in 1991 – what became the "Bush Doctrine" in 2002.
• The PNAC wrote a letter to President Clinton urging him to depose Saddam Hussein in 1998.
• It is widely known that BushCo was looking for a reason to go to war with Iraq before 911. Rumsfield and Bush both were talking about Iraq within hours of 911.
• The Downing Street Memos make the preordained plans for the Iraq War clear. Our appeal to the U.N. was a sham.
• All of the reasons given for the war were false [WMD’s, Al Qaeda ties, sponsoring Terrorism].
• The Administration was actively behind the popularizing of their war [Judith Miller’s prewar articles, the White House Iraq Group, the Office of Special Plans].

The War in Iraq never had anything to do with Terrorism or 911. Thus the absurd Bush connections above. They are determined to make this fallacious connection every time they talk. They also equate opposing the War in Iraq with being "soft on Terrorism," or "Cutting and Running," or not being patriotic, or not supporting the troops.

I appreciate the reporter who stopped it in its tracks at the press conference, but we have to do more. Those of us who keep up know all of this, but many Americans are still caught up in the post-911 patriotism thing and just don’t know how false the connection is. We see it as simply a fact, but we’re still barely recovering from being an informed minority. As we approach the mid-term elections, I think we [whoever we are] need to hammer this point home in every post, in every speech, in every breath.

It’s the Achilles Heel of the Bush Administration, and it’s finally out in the open. They can’t hide it anymore…