Posted 11:22 AM by Steve
When "conventional wisdom" doesn't reflect reality:

We hear from many extremists and the media that the War in Iraq was a “mistake”, based on lies or false intelligence.

Think for a moment about the plausibility of these claims. First, a preponderance of the evidence, and even the 9/11 commission’s conclusions, show a connection between Saddam’s regime and al-Qaeda. President Bush made very clear in his speech after the 9/11 attacks that we would make no differentiation between terrorists and the regimes that support them. Bush received bipartisan support for his speech.

State sponsorship of terrorism includes refuge, weapons, training, logistical support and intelligence. We have definitive proof that BOTH Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan provided al-Qaeda with ALL of these things. The WMD issue is a "straw man" an argument that was misunderstood from the start. Those who disingenuously lament the fact that the United States has not found "stockpiles" clearly don't grasp the doctrine of pre-emption.

By allowing these leftists to control the debate, the facts about the connections between Iraq, and al-Qaeda are censored. The improved conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan are ignored in favor of sensationalist journalism. Ironically, the Bush administration is simultaneously portrayed as relentless, clever, calculating, and power-hungry while being inept, obtuse and myopic. It reminds one of the old Saturday Night Live skit in which President Reagan (portrayed by Phil Hartman) is a kindly, old dotard in the public eye and a ruthless, intelligent manipulator behind closed doors.


The following facts are undisputed and among the evidence presented to the 9/11 commission:

1985: The mastermind behind the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, Abu Abbas, was harbored and welcomed by the Iraqi regime.

1988: More than 5,000 Kurdish men, women and children are massacred in the village of Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s forces using weapons of mass destruction.

1992: Iraqi intelligence documents list Osama Bin Laden as an Iraqi intelligence asset.

1993: A non aggression pact between Iraq and al-Qaeda is formed. The rift between secular and Islamic extremists in the Middle East has all but disappeared.

1994: Deputy Director of Iraqi intelligence confirms that Osama Bin Laden requested arms and training from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime.

1995: Abu Hajer al Iraqi, a senior al-Qaeda leader, met with Iraqi intelligence officials.

1996: A phone call between al-Qaeda-supported Sudanese military officials and the head of Iraq’s chemical weapons program was intercepted by the NSA.

1997:Abu Abdallah al Iraqi, a member of al-Qaeda, went to Iraq to help in obtaining weapons of mass destruction.

1998: The Clinton administration’s justice department indicted Iraq for providing “assistance” to al-Qaeda’s weapons development program.

1999: A senior Clinton administration counter terrorism official said that the U.S. government was “sure” Iraq had supported al-Qaeda chemical weapons programs in 1999.

2000: September 11th hijacker Khalid al Mihdhar was photographed with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Kuala Lumpur en route to a meeting at which the terrorist attacks of the USS Cole and the World Trade Center were planned and discussed.

2001: Satellite images show al-Qaeda members traveling to a compound in Iraq, a compound financed in part, by the Iraqi regime.

September 11th, 2001: The World Trade Centers in Manhattan, in the heart of New York City become ground zero for the worst terror attacks in American history. Attacks were carried out by members of al-Qaeda.

2002: Senior al Qaeda member, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, operated openly in Baghdad and received medical attention with the knowledge and approval of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.

2003: Prior to the war in Iraq, it was suspected that Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq harbored and supported Abdul Rahman Yasin, the Iraqi weapons expert who mixed the chemicals for the 1993 World Trade Center attack. This was confirmed in documents found in postwar Iraq.


Until recently, the belief that Iraq and al-Qaeda had connections was not a partisan matter. President Clinton was among the most vocal critics of Saddam Hussein’s regime saying in 1998 that , “outlaw nations and an unholy axis of terrorists, drug traffickers, and organized international criminals” would be “more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them.” He went on to say that “there is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” President Clinton also reiterated the Iraqi regime’s role with in the botched attempt to assassinate President Bush while he was visiting Kuwait.


FLIP FLOPS:

The most egregious flip-flop was that of counter terrorism official Richard Clarke. Yes, this same man who said that the U.S. government was “sure” Iraq had supported al-Qaeda chemical weapons programs in 1999, later said, in 2004, “There’s absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al-Qaeda, ever.” This bold-faced lie is all the more stunning considering that Mr. Clarke isn’t refuting the veracity of the intelligence he is denying it’s very existence!

Al Gore: During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Gore attacked the first Bush administration for disregarding Saddam Hussein‘s “brutal terrorism” and of ignoring Saddam’s “murderous ambitions”. Gore went on to make over a dozen specific references to Iraq-sponsored terrorism while citing a RAND corporation study that concluded that “an estimated 1,400 terrorists were operating openly out of Iraq.”

Again, in 1992, Gore said that Saddam Hussein was a “major danger to the region and to U.S. interests.” and that he was “seeking technologies for weapons of mass destruction” in addition to offering “state payments to terrorists.”


A notorious Democrat flip-flopper, Wesley Clark said “Certainly there’s a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda.” in 2002. Then as a candidate for President, Clark stated, “there is no connection on that.”

John Kerry, who voted to authorize the war in Iraq now says that the war in Iraq has made us “less safe” saying the “global war on terrorism has actually been set back.” So… WHY did you vote for it Mr. Kerry?