"The same bunch that is causing havoc in Iraq were the ones who came and murdered our citizens," Bush said, in an amazing display of the hubris which has marked all of his justifications for his militarism in Iraq, from the invasion, to the occupation, to the escalation.
No matter to Bush that his own 90-page classified National Intelligence Estimate leaked in February stated that violence in Iraq from 'al-Qaeda' had been surpassed by Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence as the primary source of conflict and the most immediate threat to U.S. goals."
Disputing Bush's claims in his speech that, "For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11," the 90-page NIE concluded that, "even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation."
Also that, "Decades of subordination to Sunni political, social, and economic domination have made the Shia deeply insecure about their hold on power. This insecurity leads the Shia to mistrust US efforts to reconcile Iraqi sects and reinforces their unwillingness to engage with the Sunnis on a variety of issues, including adjusting the structure of Iraq's federal system, reining in Shia militias, and easing de-Bathification."
So, once again, Bush is diverting us from stepping out of the middle of what most Americans (and Bush's own intelligence agencies) have properly concluded is an Iraqi struggle for power -- aggravated by this administration's insistence on fighting their battle against the original 9-11 al-Qaeda they allowed 'safe harbor' in Afghanistan -- by staging coerced raids against their imitators in Iraq.
While the real al-Qaeda 'threat' to America still looms somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan - emboldened and empowered by their freedom from prosecution resulting from the attention Bush is giving to the Iraqi pretenders -- the president is satisfied with creating and posturing against even more "enemies," over there, in Iraq, that he says would threaten us here at home.
We're not far at all from having to address a world of 'al-Qaeda' wannabes assuming they'll be as successful in antagonizing America as the 9-11 specters Bush has so eloquently and loquaciously elevated. That's exactly what the American people and the legislators they elected to office have been warning against. That's precisely what Bush is determined to ignore as he pushes our troops even further toward provoking Iraqis and others into even more attacks on our troops, our allies, and our interests at home and abroad as he picks a fight against a world of 'enemies' who would resist his swaggering advance and his bloody expansionism.
No matter to Bush that his own 90-page classified National Intelligence Estimate leaked in February stated that violence in Iraq from 'al-Qaeda' had been surpassed by Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence as the primary source of conflict and the most immediate threat to U.S. goals."
Disputing Bush's claims in his speech that, "For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11," the 90-page NIE concluded that, "even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation."
Also that, "Decades of subordination to Sunni political, social, and economic domination have made the Shia deeply insecure about their hold on power. This insecurity leads the Shia to mistrust US efforts to reconcile Iraqi sects and reinforces their unwillingness to engage with the Sunnis on a variety of issues, including adjusting the structure of Iraq's federal system, reining in Shia militias, and easing de-Bathification."
While the real al-Qaeda 'threat' to America still looms somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan - emboldened and empowered by their freedom from prosecution resulting from the attention Bush is giving to the Iraqi pretenders -- the president is satisfied with creating and posturing against even more "enemies," over there, in Iraq, that he says would threaten us here at home.
We're not far at all from having to address a world of 'al-Qaeda' wannabes assuming they'll be as successful in antagonizing America as the 9-11 specters Bush has so eloquently and loquaciously elevated. That's exactly what the American people and the legislators they elected to office have been warning against. That's precisely what Bush is determined to ignore as he pushes our troops even further toward provoking Iraqis and others into even more attacks on our troops, our allies, and our interests at home and abroad as he picks a fight against a world of 'enemies' who would resist his swaggering advance and his bloody expansionism.
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