Bush On Al Qaeda Not Existing In Iraq Before Invasion: ‘So What?’

[ProSense]

Bush On Al Qaeda Not Existing In Iraq Before Invasion: ‘So What?’

Yesterday, after an Iraqi journalist used “(t)wo of the worst insults in Islam” against him, an unfazed President Bush sat down with ABC’s Martha Raddatz for an exit interview in Iraq. When Raddatz asked Bush about his legacy, Bush first boasted about “52 months of uninterrupted job growth.” (There have been 1.9 million jobs lost in 2008 alone.)

Bush then turned to Iraq, and justified the war there by suggesting it had been al Qaeda’s home base. When Raddatz corrected him, Bush dismissively replied, “So what?“:

BUSH: One of the major theaters against al Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq. This is where al Qaeda said they were going to take their stand. This is where al Qaeda was hoping to take–

RADDATZ: But not until after the U.S. invaded.

BUSH: Yeah, that’s right. So what? The point is that al Qaeda said they’re going to take a stand. Well, first of all in the post-9/11 environment Saddam Hussein posed a threat. And then upon removal, al Qaeda decides to take a stand.

Watch it:

(http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/15/bush-so-what/">Bush On AQI Not Existing Before Invasion: 'So What?')

Continuing his refusal to take any responsibility for the consequences of his decisions, Bush suggests that al Qaeda came to Iraq by chance, that it simply “turn out to have been” the place where they “were going to take their stand.” But al Qaeda’s existence in Iraq is 100 percent attributable to Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq: al Qaeda never existed there before, and in fact, Saddam Hussein viewed Osama bin Laden as a threat and refused to support him.

Throughout the run-up to war, Bush repeatedly cited supposed links between al Qaeda and Iraq to drum up support for the U.S. invasion. When those links proved to be utterly false — and perhaps even willingly fabricated — Bush began insisting that al Qaeda had chosen Iraq as the “central front in the war on terror,” and so the United States was forced to stay there and respond. In the meantime, more than 4,000 Americans have been killed, 30,000 maimed, and nearly 100,000 Iraqis killed.

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More than one million Iraqis dead since 2003 invasion: study (2008)


edited to date study

[ProSense]

1. "powerfully symbolic indication of lingering hostility there toward the outgoing US leader."

Bush makes surprise Afghanistan stop after Iraq visit

by Olivier Knox Olivier Knox – 18 mins ago

KABUL (AFP) – US President George W. Bush made a surprise farewell visit Monday to Afghanistan, where he warned of a long struggle ahead to restore stability seven years after ordering troops into the country.

Bush landed in pre-dawn darkness after an equally secretive stop in Iraq, where an angry Iraqi reporter threw two shoes at him in a powerfully symbolic indication of lingering hostility there toward the outgoing US leader.

The president's visit to the two countries which will arguably most define his legacy comes just over a month before he hands the keys of the White House to his successor Barack Obama on January 20.

Bush landed at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, virtually all lights on his Air Force One official plane turned off as part of a thick shroud of secrecy to ensure his safety.

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