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Editor's Note:
We had a lot of response to last week's Viewpoint. I hope
you find this article just as stimulating.
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Bush's Killer Iraq Talking Points
By Robert Parry
May 30, 2007
It's an old military adage that bad intel can get soldiers
killed, but it now turns out that false talking points may
be even more lethal, a lesson that George W. Bush and Dick
Cheney continue to teach the world as the death toll mounts
in Iraq.
In pounding the Democratic-controlled Congress into
submission on Iraq War funding last week, the President
and Vice President let loose a withering barrage of non-
sequiturs, appeals to fear, long-discredited canards and
personal attacks on critics for endangering U.S. troops.
Fearing an escalation of the rhetorical assault over the
Memorial Day weekend, Democratic leaders crumbled, reneging
on their vow that Bush would never again be given a blank
check. Instead they cleared the way for a bipartisan vote
that handed the President more than $100 billion without
any meaningful strings attached.
But Bush's Iraq War talking points - while appealing to
some Americans and frightening some Democrats - remain a
potpourri of cherry-picked intelligence, irrational
arguments and outright lies.
Back were some golden oldies - like Saddam Hussein failing
to comply with U.N. demands to get rid of his WMD, even
though the world knows that he did - and some newer
favorites - like the need to listen when al-Qaeda boasts
about driving the U.S. out of Iraq, although U.S.
intelligence knows al-Qaeda actually believes that
"prolonging the war" is in its interest.
At the May 23 Coast Guard commencement, Bush reprised some
of his old talking points and unveiled a new one, citing
intelligence that Osama bin Laden tasked al-Qaeda forces
in Iraq in January 2005 to conduct terrorist attacks out-
side of Iraq, including possibly the United States.
"I've often warned that if we fail in Iraq, the enemy will
follow us home," Bush said. "Many ask, 'How do you know?'
Today, I'd like to share some information with you that
attests to al-Qaeda's intentions."
Bush then laid out the story of bin Laden ordering
Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to divert
some of his operatives in Iraq to terrorist activities
outside Iraq.
"Bin Laden emphasized that America should be Zarqawi's
number one priority in terms of foreign attacks," Bush
said. "Zarqawi welcomed this direction; he claimed that
he had already come up with some good proposals."
The operations, however, were thwarted, Bush said, and
Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. bombing raid inside Iraq in
June 2006.
Though Bush presented this two-year-old intelligence as
support for his argument that the U.S. forces must fight
the "enemy there, so we don't have to fight them here,"
the information actually would seem to establish the
opposite; fighting them there makes it more likely that
they also will attack here.
Boon to al-Qaeda
As U.S. intelligence has been reporting internally for
years, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was a boon
to al-Qaeda, diverting U.S. forces away from its leaders
hiding along the Pakistan-Afghan borders while helping
al-Qaeda attract thousands of new recruits, build a battle-
tested force in Iraq, and reestablish its financial
infrastructure.
The Iraq WAr even has turned into a cash cow for al-Qaeda,
which is sending money raised for its operations in Iraq
back to its headquarters in Pakistan to fund the leader-
ship, the Los Angeles Times reported on May 20.
The Times wrote: "In one of the most troubling trends,
U.S. [senior intelligence] officials said that al Qaeda's
command base in Pakistan is increasingly being funded by
cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's
operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to
the anti-American insurgency as well as kidnappings of
wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activities.
"The influx of money has bolstered al Qaeda's leadership
ranks at a time when the core command is regrouping and
reasserting influence over its far-flung network."
Al-Qaeda's current strategy appears to be to keep the
United States bogged down in Iraq; to continue exploiting
the U.S. occupation as a propaganda, recruitment and money-
raising bonanza; and to undertake terrorist plots against
the West.
As "Atiyah," one of bin Laden's top deputies, wrote to
Zarqawi in December 2005 about the Iraq War, "the most
important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfast-
ness and firm rooting, and that it grows in terms of
supporters, strength, clarity of justification, and visible
proof each day. Indeed, prolonging the war is in our
interest."
Independent of the Atiyah letter, which wasn't intercepted
until June 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate,
representing the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence
community, concluded in April 2006 that the Iraq War had
become the "cause celebre" that was spreading Islamic
extremism around the world.
Yet, the Bush administration continues to use talking
points that justify staying in Iraq as a way to counter
al-Qaeda, though the reality appears to be that the U.S.
invasion of Iraq has been Bush's gift to bin Laden that
keeps on giving.
Scary Talking Point
At the West Point commencement on May 26, Vice President
Cheney recycled another old and scary talking point, an
al-Qaeda statement dating back to 2002 asserting a tooth-
for-a-tooth right to avenge America's killing of Muslim
civilians, including children, by inflicting similar havoc
in the United States.
"Al-Qaeda's leadership has said they have the right to
'kill four million Americans, two million of them children,
and to exile twice as many and to wound and cripple
thousands," Cheney said, reviving a claim which was made
three years ago by President Bush.
But Cheney, like Bush, stripped the statement, attributed
to al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith, of its context.
It was a twisted moral rationalization seeking to justify
the 9/11 attacks to a disgusted Muslim world; it wasn't an
operational plan as Cheney and Bush suggested.
Similarly, in their pre-Memorial Day political offensive,
Bush and Cheney continued to cite al-Qaeda's supposed dream
of a "caliphate," a religious state that in the Bush-Cheney
view would stretch from Spain to Indonesia. Yet, whatever
al-Qaeda's grandiose visions, U.S. intelligence recognizes
that there is no practical way for this ragtag group to
achieve anything close to that goal, especially if the
United States adopts a sensible Middle East strategy.
Prior to 9/11, al-Qaeda's leaders were exiles from their
homelands and pariahs in the Islamic world. They and other
Islamic extremist groups had been defeated in country after
country, including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Expelled even from Sudan, al-Qaeda's leaders fled to the
farthest corners of the globe, in their case the caves of
Afghanistan.
According to the 9/11 Commission and other studies,
al-Qaeda attacked U.S. targets, in part, hoping for a
clumsy U.S. military response that would alienate Muslims
and give al-Qaeda another political shot in the Islamic
world.
With the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda's leaders almost mis-
calculated, provoking an intense U.S. assault on their
bases in Afghanistan. But the Bush administration's failure
to capture bin Laden at Tora Bora and its quick pivot to
invade Iraq gave al-Qaeda new hope.
Suddenly, al-Qaeda could point to Bush's "crusade" in the
Middle East that involved attacking an Arab country that
had nothing to do with 9/11.
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Bush-Osama Symbiosis
As it turned out, bin Laden's interests and Bush's
interests were symbiotic. Bush got to conquer Iraq and
finish off his father's nemesis, Saddam Hussein, while
bin Laden saw one of his Muslim enemies eliminated
(Hussein) and al-Qaeda got its "cause celebre" to
radicalize the Islamic world.
Yet, despite the recognition of the U.S. intelligence
community that Bush's invasion of Iraq has strengthened
al-Qaeda, Bush continues to cite bin Laden's quotes about
the war to justify keeping U.S. forces there.
"Some in our country question whether the battle in Iraq
is part of the war on terror," Bush told the Coast Guard
cadets. "Among the terrorists, there's no doubt. Hear the
words of Osama bin Laden. He calls the struggle in Iraq a
'war of destiny.' He proclaimed 'the war is for you or for
us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace
forever.'"
But Bush's repeated assertion that Americans must heed the
words of the enemy and do the opposite cedes to al Qaeda
control over U.S. actions. In effect, a superpower with
global responsibilities has bound its decision-making to
bin Laden's whims and rhetoric.
It also opens the United States to "Brer-Rabbit-and-the-
briar-patch" tactics in which bin Laden can bait Washington
to do the opposite of what he actually wants, for instance,
calling on the United States to leave Iraq when he actually
wants the U.S. to stay.
Nevertheless, though losing ground politically and
militarily in the Middle East, Bush still has beaten the
Democrats in Washington. He did so by accusing war critics
of playing into al-Qaeda's hands, even though the evidence
is that Bush's policy in Iraq is what has helped al-Qaeda
most.
White House spokesmen accused Democrats of wanting to set
a "surrender" date by establishing a timeline for withdraw-
ing U.S. combat forces from Iraq. Democrats also were
chastised for undermining the troops and U.S. security by
holding out for some concessions from Bush on an Iraq exit
strategy.
Though the Democrats won control of Congress in November
2006 with what was widely regarded as a popular mandate
to end the war, the party leaders decided that their slim
majorities couldn't withstand the Bush-led Memorial Day
attacks on their patriotism.
Bush's victory on Capitol Hill ensured not only more than
$100 billion in new war funding but suggests that the U.S.
occupation of Iraq may continue indefinitely and almost
certainly into the next presidency, unless the Democratic
cave-in is met with a groundswell of public outrage.
New Talking Points
Democratic leaders insist that their Memorial Day
capitulation was only a tactical retreat and that new
funding battles will be fought in September. But Bush
is already laying the groundwork for a new set of harsh
talking points.
Bush is signaling that war critics will be blamed for the
escalating bloodshed expected among American troops over
the summer. Bush's talking point will assert that his
domestic opponents are encouraging al-Qaeda by rewarding
the terrorists with the promise of a U.S. withdrawal if
they kill enough Americans and Iraqis.
"A few weeks ago, al-Qaeda's number two, second-in-command
[Ayman al] Zawahiri, issued a video in which he gloated
that al-Qaeda's 'movement of violence' has 'forced the
Americans to accept a pullout - about which they only
differ in regard to its timing,'" Bush said in his Coast
Guard address.
"We can expect al-Qaeda to continue its campaign of high-
profile attacks, including deadly suicide bombings and
assassinations. And as they do, our troops will face more
fighting and increased risks in the weeks and months
ahead," Bush said.
At a May 24 news conference, Bush expanded on his
prediction that the pressure for an Iraq War reassessment
in September will make August particularly "bloody."
"It could make August a tough month, because you see, what
they're going to try to do is kill as many innocent people
as they can to influence the debate here at home," Bush
said. "Don't you find that interesting? I do - that they
recognize that the death of innocent people could shake
our will."
Bush also made clear that he intends to build his Iraq War
case by convincing the American people that they and their
families are in grave danger if the Democratic war critics
get their way.
"This concept about, well, maybe let's just kind of just
leave them alone and maybe they'll be all right is naïve,"
Bush said. "These people attacked us before we were in
Iraq, ...and they've been attacking ever since. They are
a threat to your children....
"Some may say, well, he's just saying that to get people to
pay attention to him or try to scare them into - for some
reason. I would hope our world hadn't become so cynical
that they don't take the threats of al-Qaeda seriously,
because they're real. And it's a danger to the American
people."
At the news conference, Bush also bristled at a question
about why bin Laden was still at large.
"Because we haven't got him yet," Bush snapped. "That's
why. And he's hiding, and we're looking, and we will
continue to look until we bring him to justice. We've
brought a lot of his buddies to justice, but not him.
That's why he's at large. He's not out there traipsing
around; he's not leading many parades, however. He's not
out feeding the hungry. He's isolated, trying to kill
people to achieve his objective."
Lashing Out
Bush also lashed out at a question about whether the Iraq
War had strengthened al-Qaeda:
"In other words, the option would have been just let Saddam
Hussein stay there? Your question is, should we not have
left Saddam Hussein in power? And the answer is, absolutely
not....
"As you might remember back then, we tried the diplomatic
route: [U.N. Resolution] 1441 was a unanimous vote in the
Security Council that said disclose, disarm or face serious
consequences. So the choice was his to make. And he made a
choice that has subsequently caused him to lose his life."
In this old-favorite talking point, Bush never acknowledges
the fact that Hussein did comply with Resolution 1441 by
declaring accurately that he had disposed of his WMD stock-
piles and by permitting U.N. inspectors free rein to
inspect any site of their choosing. In March 2003, Bush
forced the U.N. inspectors to leave and then, in defiance
of the U.N. Charter, launched a preemptive invasion.
Though the history on this point is now well established,
Bush continues to falsify the record - even saying at times
that Hussein barred the U.N. inspectors. But Bush is never
called on this falsehood by the White House press corps.
On Memorial Day, President Bush tested out another talking
point, depicting the continued presence of U.S. forces in
Iraq as a test of American mettle and manhood.
"As before in our history, Americans find ourselves under
attack and underestimated," Bush said. "Our enemies long
for our retreat. They question our moral purpose. They
doubt our strength of will. Yet even after five years of
war, our finest citizens continue to answer our enemies
with courage and confidence."
For Bush and Cheney, their own triumph of the will has been
their success in using tough-talking talking points to back
down the Democrats in Washington.
But the tragedy on the ground in Iraq is that no matter how
much "courage and confidence" American soldiers display -
as their death toll rises toward 3,500 and the number of
Iraqi dead soars into the hundreds of thousands - the
soldiers find themselves fighting and dying for a war
strategy that arguably is doing far more harm than good.
No talking point can change that painful reality.
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Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the
1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest
book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty
from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at
secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com,
as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the
Press & 'Project Truth.'
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