Bush Administration Once Again Links Iraq and 9-11
This morning, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice returned to the Bush Administration's tried and true strategy of linking the tragic attacks of 9-11 with the President's war in Iraq. However, the President himself was forced to disavow this link in September of 2003, after Secretary Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld stated there was no connection. Instead of offering the American people a clear path to success in Iraq, the Bush Administration has returned to the same defensive and discredited rhetoric. Patriotism and love of country does not demand endless sacrifice on the part of our troops. The American people deserve honest leadership and honest answers.
WHEN MAKING THE CASE FOR WAR DURING 2003, THE WHITE HOUSE LINKED IRAQ AND THE SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS
President Bush links "end of major combat" in Iraq with September 11th attacks. In his speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush stated "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror...We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got." [Remarks by the President, 5/1/03]
Vice President Cheney states that the war in Iraq is a strike against the terrorists who had America under assault on 9/11. On Meet the Press, Vice President Cheney stated, "If we're successful in Iraq...we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." [NBC's Meet the Press, 9/14/03]
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld stated that going to war with Iraq costs "a heck of a lot less" than the cost of 9-11. Rumsfeld stated that although he could not estimate the cost of a war with Iraq, "It would cost a heck of a lot less than 9-11 cost and 9-11 would cost a heck of a lot less than a chemical or biological 9-11." [AP, 2/13/03]
WHITE HOUSE FORCED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THERE WAS NO LINK BETWEEN 9/11 AND SADDAM HUSSEIN IN SEPTEMBER OF 2003...
BUSH: "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." [FNS, 9/17/03]
RICE: "...We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either, that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9/11. [ABC, 9/16/03]
RUMSFELD: "I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that [Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11th attacks]. [CNN, 9/16/03]
...BUT GOP HAS RETURNED TO DISCREDITED RHETORIC
BUSH: "The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11th...After September 11th, 2001, they tried to shake our will...On September the 11th I made a commitment... War reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001." [Bush Speech at Ft. Bragg, 6/28/05]
RUMSFELD: "The enemies we face in Iraq today come from the mold similar to those who killed 3,000 people on September 11th." [ABC News 7/1/05]
RIDGE: "Well...Iraq was not the first stage of the war. The first was on September 11." [MSNBC's Hardball, 7/11/05]
RICE: "The fact of the matter is that when we were attacked on September 11, we had a choice to make. We could decide that the proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into buildings and, therefore, we would go after al Qaeda...or we could take a bolder approach." [Fox News Sunday, 10/16//05]
