When rogue nations enable Islamic terrorists to fly jumbo jets into American skyscrapers, the president's oath of office and his job description require him to do more than mouth simple platitudes.
While Larry Jarrett ("Get better perspective on radical Islam," Jan. 12) is getting a "better perspective" on radical Islam, President Bush is providing radical Islam a better perspective on American military might.
President Bush's invasion of Iraq, as did President Roosevelt's invasion of Germany, will give millions a better perspective on freedom.
Edward Rhodes, Augusta
Comments
Are we still trying to link 9/11 and Iraq...man this horse is discredited, beaten and dead. If you say it enough, they'll believe it. Obviously there are still some "intellectually" blind, deaf, dumb and ignorant folk still trying to make other blind, deaf, dumb and ignorant people believe it.
And you are one of them. I hope the next terrorist plane that crashes over here, does so right on top of your house while you and your family are all home watching the news together. Afterall, if you dont want to fight in their backyard, Im sure they will be happy to fight in yours!!!
Welcome to the forum MM...are you an ACE?
DrGunby, are you saying radical Islamists aren't affiliated with radical Islamists? Your hairsplitting perspective seems obvious to most. Is geographic location a noteworthy distinction? By your reasoning, no one in Afghanistan flew a plane in America, so we should only retaliate against Islamists in America. Seems like a headline linked political argument to me.
The rogue nation that most enabled the 9/11 hijackers is Saudi Arabia. 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. None of the 9/11 hijackers came from Iraq or Iran. The Sunni cult of Wahhabism which forms the religious basis for Al Qaeda originated in Saudi Arabia. To this day the largest source of funding for AQ comes from Saudi Arabia. Pakistan is another source of Muslim extremism & terrorism. Nuclear armed Pakistan was & is much more of a threat to legitimate U.S. interests than Afghanistan & certainly Iraq ever were. Iran is Shiite not Sunni. They are the enemy of AQ. AFAIK no Shiite has ever perpetrated a suicide attack. That is an Al Qaeda tactic. Half-cocked George W. Bush went off against the wrong target when he took his eye off AQ and trained his sights on Saddam Hussein. OBL and Ayman al Zawahiri are at large to this day. Sheriff G.W. Bush did not deliver on his promise to bring OBL, the person responsible for the 9/11 attacks, to justice. 3,200 more Marines are being sent for a "one time" (yeah right) tour of a failing U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Bush did not finish the job in Afghanistan against AQ before launching wars on 2 fronts. Now Bush eyes Iran & Pakistan.
President Bush has done all that he could given the obstacles he has had to jump through. I for one am glad this president didn't just sit by and say nothing and do nothing when 911 came about. The United States is still fighting on the shores overseas to keep the scum off our shores. It will happen over here if we continue to look the other way when it comes to the war on terrorism.
It is truly a sad commentary on the attention span of this country when we perpetually forget that there was absolutely no connection between Iraq and the 9/11 hijacking. And don't give me any of this "We're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" crap...its just one of many right-wing, militaristic propaganda slogans designed to try and frighten the bewildered herd into blind complacence. Apparently its working.
Just when I thought the mentality of some folks couldn't drop any lower I read what jlruthven84 has to say. :(
The measure of a persons intelligence is how much they agree with common society, and jlruthven134 is in the minority!
Who's the minority? When asked the following question: "Thinking ahead to November 2008, which of these two statements comes closest to your own views? After eight years of George W. Bush, we need to elect a president who can set the nation in a new direction. OR, We need to keep the country moving in the direction Bush has been taking us." 79% said NEW DIRECTION; 17% BUSH DIRECTION. ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Jan. 9-12, 2008. N=1,130 adults nationwide. (say what you will about polls, they do generally reflect the populace)
Christian, you show me some documented proof of Iraq/Al-quaeda links, and I'll start to take your foolishness seriously for a second. And if you could also explain to me why, since a good majority of the hijackers were Saudi and not Iraqi, we invaded Iraq instead of Saudi Arabia, not to mention why, after years of "searching" we still can't find the one man who we're pretty sure is responsbible for masterminding the whole thing, even though we apparently have a pretty good idea of where he is. And as for my statements regarding propaganda, your posts seem to prove my point better than I ever could, you laughable sheep.
What The ???
"The regime has longstanding and continuing ties to terrorist groups, and there are Al Qaida terrorists inside Iraq." - George W. Bush Delivers Weekly Radio Address, White House (9/28/2002)
"We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases." - President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat; Remarks by the President on Iraq, White House (10/7/2002) - Whitehouse.gov
"I think they're both equally important, and they're both dangerous. And as I said in my speech in Cincinnati, we will fight if need be the war on terror on two fronts. We've got plenty of capacity to do so. And I also mentioned the fact that there is a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The war on terror, Iraq is a part on the war on terror. And he must disarm." - President Condems Attack in Bali, White House (10/14/2002) - Whitehouse.gov
"This is a man who has got connections with Al Qaida. Imagine a terrorist network with Iraq as an arsenal and as a training ground, so that a Saddam Hussein could use this shadowy group of people to attack his enemy and leave no fingerprint behind. He's a threat." - Remarks by the President in Texas Welcome, White House (11/4/2002) - Whitehouse.gov
"He's a threat because he is dealing with Al Qaida. In my Cincinnati speech I reminded the American people, a true threat facing our country is that an Al Qaida-type network trained and armed by Saddam could attack America and leave not one fingerprint." - President Outlines Priorities, White House (11/7/2002)
"He's had contacts with Al Qaida. Imagine the scenario where an Al Qaida-type organization uses Iraq as an arsenal, a place to get weapons, a place to be trained to use the weapons. Saddam Hussein could use surrogates to come and attack people he hates." - Remarks by the President at Arkansas Welcome, White House (11/4/2002) - BushOnIraq.com
There are more quotes from bush "connecting" about 911 and Iraq, but you get the idea. Finally on August 30, 2006 bush admits to reporters that there was no link between 911 and Iraq.
oh, come on, dani, you've got to be kidding. By 2003, national polls showed that 44% of Americans believed there was a connection between 911 and Iraq. Shortly after 9/11, it was only 3%. Somebody was peddling that BS.
O.K., here's the connection that seems obvious to the national defense crowd but seems to pass over the head of Democrats. Al Qaeda, the group most feel had something to do with 9/11 (except for some dems), is one of many radical Islamic groups that have a base of funding from most Muslims. Then America stomped on Afganistan, Iraq, and a few strikes against some outlying countries and all of a sudden the financial support fell drastically. Were it not for the heroin trade, they'd be almost without support, relatively speaking. As it is, their declared war is pretty much on standby. The multiple bombings around the world seemed to have fallen off for now and hiding from cave to cave seems to be the current way of life for the Hero of the Left. No connection? The big picture is often confusing to those that won't see.
just bring the troops home. no weapons of mass destruction were found but the media continues to mass destruct why not attack them!
and what is our future? Are we going to spend another 100 years in Iraq as McCain suggests? So much of our future hinges on our occupation of Iraq; the deficit, our military stretched to its limits, and continued the pouring of tax dollars into Iraq.
Alright PT, I've about had it with your comments. No democrat has ever said al qaeda isn't responsible for 911 and bin laden is certainly not a "hero of the left." I get it, I think we all get it, you hate the democratic party. Believe it or not, democrats love the USA, when we were struck on 911, we all hurt for our fellow Americans who were slain that day. And those responsible should be brought to justice..dead or alive, but to occupy a country who was not responsible is wrong. Yes, Saddam was a madman, however, there are other dictators just as bad, but I don't see us invading their countries, oh, yeah, there's not "black gold" under their lands.
teharper428, have you heard of Thomas Sowell? He's a very prolific writer, wise with age and experience. He's not a "panic first" writer, like those so popular with the MSM. He also has a little more realistic point of view of this country.
I think the President Bush was being strategic when he went after Iraq. He wants to get them on our side, that way we have more allies to back us up when we try to take over the rest of the world...
Love dani's "180." Got to be embarrassing to be proven so wrong, so publicly! So, dani, did we go into Iraq for the WMD that didn't exist or the Al Qaeda-9/11 link which you now say you never believed anyway?
Or is there another Bush (take note mastersmoney) fantasy about Iraq you do believe?
If the Heroin trade is so important to the terrorists, why did we not destroy the poppy fields in afghanistan?
Christian134 I question your IQ. Did you read what any intelligent person said? They did not say we should not go after those who attacked us on 9-11. They are saying Iraq is not the one who attacked us, so why are we going after them and not after the people who did attack us? People like you will never answer this question. Sit back, stare at your giant poster of G.W. and mutter, "I love Big Brother" while the rest of us look at the facts.
If you had a neighbor who was constantly threatening you and your other neighbors with violence and you came home one day and one of your neighbors had kicked down your door and hurt your family what would you do? Would you say "I hope that doesn't happen again" or would you go get that SOB who'd been threatening you the whole time and make an example of him even if you didn't know for sure? We're talking about Saddam Hussein, not Mary Poppins. Hussein was a mass murdering dictator who made alot of threats. I say better safe than sorry and I guarantee you foreign countrys who wish ill upon us took note. It's easy to whine about the situation we're in but don't forget how 3 out of 4 people wanted action in '02, well, we got it.
I would agree the author's claim that our military action has given terrorists a much better perspective of our military abilities. The terrorists have proven themselves quite capable of adapting their tactics to ours, unfortunately ours change much more slowly. Is our military holding something back or have we shown them everything we're capable of? Why are we still fighting in Iraq if we already won? There's always been a troubling inconsistency with the message put forth by the White House regarding the action in Iraq.
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