Friday, July 20, 2007

Regarding the recently released White House intelligence report declaring the effort to fight al-Qaeda has failed and the Iraq war has actually helped Osama bin Laden, just imagine if this were Bill Clinton. The right-wing screaming media outlets would have been merciless, around the clock.

But let me understand: 9/11 occurs, al-Qaeda is responsible, this administration attacks a country not responsible for 9/11 and that has no al-Qaeda, the war is a disaster, eventually al-Qaeda moves into Iraq and starts to heavily recruit, and now the administration points to al-Qaeda's presence in Iraq as the reason we should stay. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda has thrived elsewhere. Incredible.

Again, if all of this happened under Bill Clinton, he would've been skewered 24/7, and deservedly so! However instead, because the person is a challenged moron and a Republican, we witness nowhere near the vitriol or stinging criticism that Clinton endured for much less.

The bottom line is this is a trumped-up war to power-grab oil vs. actually fighting terrorists to protect America. And as Fred Kaplan writes, "Many times, President Bush has said that we're fighting the terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here. It is an absurd argument in many ways. But the NIE reveals that the opposite is the case—that because we're fighting them in Iraq, we are more likely to face them here."

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