The Xsociate Files

Yesterday, President Bush gave the commencement address to a group of graduating Coast Guardsmen. Given the makeup of the audience, a big topic of the speech was the war in Iraq and the war on terror. To help lay out his case that Iraq was the central front, Bush selectively declassified a bulletin from 2005 suggesting that Bin Laden wished to use the country as a launching pad for attacks on the US. Many derided the president for once again using intelligence to help bolster his flailing credibility. But Creature was the only one to note that the leaked info actually undermines the President's basic argument that leaving Iraq will mean leaving it as a base for Al-Qaeda. The bulletin just shows they are intent on attacking us regardless of whether we are there or not.

There are other things we know that also undermine this claim that leaving will result in Al-Qaeda gaining more influence and power. Not only has our presence has already become a cause celebre for global jihadists but just this past week we learned it's also become a cash cow for Al-Qaeda specifically. And despite the fact that Bush was warned that invading might result in all of this, he invaded anyway.

So the next time you hear someone argue that we can't leave because Iraq might become a base for Al-Qaeda, ask them this one simple question:

Why'd we give it to them in the first place?

Posted by The Xsociate on Thursday, May 24, 2007 | Permalink