In his article White House In Full Retreat Joseph Wilson lays Bush’s lies on the line. (In 2002 Wilson was asked by Dick Cheney to investigate the claims that Iraq was in the process of procuring uranium for a nuclear weapons program.)
President Bush’s speech last Sunday was just the latest example of the administration’s concerted efforts to misrepresent reality — and rewrite history — to mask its mistakes. The president said Iraq is now the center of our battle against terrorism. But we did not go to Iraq to fight Al-Qaida, which remains perhaps our deadliest foe, and we will not defeat it there.
By trying to justify the current fight in Iraq as a fight against terrorism, the administration has done two frightening things. It has tried to divert attention from Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for the wave of terrorist attacks against American interests from New York and Washington to Yemen, and who reappeared in rugged terrain in a video broadcast last week. And the policy advanced by the speech is a major step toward creating a dangerous, self-fulfilling prophecy and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the facts on the ground.