Iraq-Terrorism Link Continues to Be Problematic

[Khephra]

(2003-09-09) WASHINGTON--In describing Iraq as the "central front" in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, President Bush was sounding a theme that continues to resonate powerfully with the American people -- even as some in the counter-terrorism community increasingly wonder whether the assertion is true mainly because the American invasion made it so.

snip......

Tying Iraq to the war on terrorism has become crucial to the Bush administration's appeal for continued public support, particularly with the failure so far to find banned weapons and the ongoing turmoil that is undercutting visions of a swift transition to democracy that might spread across the Middle East.

But the terrorism link is problematic. The administration has yet to prove that deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had any complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks, or even any significant relationship with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. For that reason, some counter- terrorism experts challenge Bush's characterization.

"I do think this argument about terrorism is disingenuous," said James Steinberg, vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan public policy center in Washington. "This wasn't the place you had to confront Al Qaeda. They weren't there, and this is not what that war was about."

more.......................

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbur/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=543517

[curlyred]

1. 70% of the American people believe this

We can talk about it all day long, but until we can get some media involvement in debunking this, it's going nowhere.

[Bandit]

2. The same media you are complaining about gave you those stats

I don't believe them for a moment. No more than I believe Bush* won the last election. The media told us he did but I believe different. I also believe 70% of Americans couldn't find Iraq on a map including Bush*.

[Parche]

3. uneducated people

Until we educate the masses they will continue to believe
"those" people over in the middle east and Iraq are responsible

[xchrom]

4. that's why david kay is there

he's inventing -- oops, i meant to say -- he's finding evidence as speak.