There they go again!
President Bush never tires of underlining the connection he believes exists between al-Quaeda and Saddam Hussein, e.g. Hussein was somehow responsible for 9-11. That's a deliberate endeavor, because that was the most persuasive rationale for this war from the standpoint of public opinion. The difficulty is that Middle East specialists have all debunked this, and so have laypeople who know anything about the ascetics of Al-Quaeda and the secular excesses of Saddam. If you dwell in the realm of facts, there is NO connection whatever between the people who attacked us on 9-11 and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
But you would never know this, listening to the leading Republican Presidential candidates. For them, Saddam and Al-Quaeda and everyone else known to oppose US policy are all joined at the hip, engaged in non-stop plots against us here in the US. In today's Boston Globe, Peter J. Cannelos reminds us of the candidates' recent public statements on this matter:
"In the May 15 Republican debate in South Carolina, Senator John McCain of Arizona suggested that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would "follow us home" from Iraq." Never mind that bin Laden is not now and never was there. Not to be outdone, "former New York mayor Rudolph Guiliani asserted, in response to a question about Iraq, that "these people want to follow us here and they have followed us here. Fort Dix happened a week ago" I guess he forgot, or perhaps never bothered to find out, that those guys are Kosovo Albanian immigrants, NOT Iraqis or Saudis. Meanwhile, "former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney identified numerous groups that he said have 'come together' to try to bring down the United States. 'They want to bring down the West, particularly us,' Romney declared. 'And they've come together as Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, with that intent.' Romney might have won the top prize for sheer ignorance and stupidity with that...he actually throws together the two major divisions in Islam, Sunni and Shiia, with known terrorist groups like Hezbollah. I'm sure the billions of peaceful followers of Islam worldwide appreciate that greatly.
There has never been a time when the United States needs sophisticated and fact-based leaders and thinkers more than right now. I think it's reasonable to conclude that these candidates and all their partisans are permanently disqualified from consideration.
But you would never know this, listening to the leading Republican Presidential candidates. For them, Saddam and Al-Quaeda and everyone else known to oppose US policy are all joined at the hip, engaged in non-stop plots against us here in the US. In today's Boston Globe, Peter J. Cannelos reminds us of the candidates' recent public statements on this matter:
"In the May 15 Republican debate in South Carolina, Senator John McCain of Arizona suggested that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would "follow us home" from Iraq." Never mind that bin Laden is not now and never was there. Not to be outdone, "former New York mayor Rudolph Guiliani asserted, in response to a question about Iraq, that "these people want to follow us here and they have followed us here. Fort Dix happened a week ago" I guess he forgot, or perhaps never bothered to find out, that those guys are Kosovo Albanian immigrants, NOT Iraqis or Saudis. Meanwhile, "former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney identified numerous groups that he said have 'come together' to try to bring down the United States. 'They want to bring down the West, particularly us,' Romney declared. 'And they've come together as Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, with that intent.' Romney might have won the top prize for sheer ignorance and stupidity with that...he actually throws together the two major divisions in Islam, Sunni and Shiia, with known terrorist groups like Hezbollah. I'm sure the billions of peaceful followers of Islam worldwide appreciate that greatly.
There has never been a time when the United States needs sophisticated and fact-based leaders and thinkers more than right now. I think it's reasonable to conclude that these candidates and all their partisans are permanently disqualified from consideration.
posted by buckarooskidoo at 10:55 AM
3 Comments:
Osama and Saddam had one thing in common only. Both were financed by the US in the 1980s.
Wait, are you suggesting that we went to war under false pretenses? Nah, couldn't ever happen, not in this country with our equal divisions of power in the government and good investigative reporters.
Oh wait, sorry, I was lost in an alternate universe there for a moment.
What's that you say, President Bush? There's no evidence that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11. Can you say it again please? Ah yes, that's what I thought you said.
Do you have a memory disorder, Mr. President? Perhaps there's some medication for that.
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