McClatchy: Bush Wrong to Blame Iraq Woes Mainly on Al-Qaeda

[seemslikeadream]

Source: EDITOR & PUBLISHER

By E&P Staff

Published: June 29, 2007 10:55 PM ET

NEW YORK For the past week, E&P has noted the Bush administration's rising use of blaming much of the insurgency in Iraq on al-Qaeda operatives. Some news outlets have gone all along with this, others not. We pointed out that McClatchy Newspapers seemed to be questioning this trend.

"We cannot attribute all the violence in Iraq to al Qaida," retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq before becoming an opponent of Bush's strategy there, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "Al Qaida is certainly a component, but there's larger components."

Today McClatchy's Jonathan Landay, in a report from Washington, threw more cold water on this. His article opened as follows.
*

Facing eroding support for his Iraq policy, even among Republicans, President Bush on Thursday called al Qaida "the main enemy" in Iraq, an assertion rejected by his administration's senior intelligence analysts.

The reference, in a major speech at the Naval War College that referred to al Qaida at least 27 times, seemed calculated to use lingering outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster support for the current buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, despite evidence that sending more troops hasn't reduced the violence or sped Iraqi government action on key issues.

Read more: http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003605988

[Cha]

1. Oh but it's such a lovely

fucking soundbite that rove has them all sayin' now.. doncha know?

Blame it Al Qaeda..TERROR TERROR TERROR..ORANGE ALERT RED ALERT :nuke:

[sakabatou]

2. O RLY?

[mrcheerful]

3. But who will shrub blame for his failures then?

[Hieronymus]

4. Thank God for McClatchy they told the truth

from the beginning.

[leftchick]

5. Read The Transcript here. Unfuckingbelievable....

<snip>

Let me begin with Anbar province. You can see here on the map, Anbar is
a largely Sunni province that accounts for nearly a third of Iraqi
territory. It's a big place. Anbar stretches from the outskirts of Baghdad
to Iraq's borders with Jordan and Syria. It was al Qaeda's chief base of
operations in Iraq. Remember, when I mention al Qaeda, they're the ones who
attacked the United States of America and killed nearly 3,000 people on
September the 11th, 2001. They're part of the enemy. They're extremists and
radicals who try to impose their view on the world.

According to a captured document -- in other words, according to
something that we captured from al Qaeda -- they had hoped to set up its --
a government in Anbar. And that would have brought them closer to their
stated objective of taking down Iraq's democracy, building a radical
Islamic empire, and having a safe haven from which to launch attacks on
Americans at home and abroad. This is what the enemy said. And I think it
is vital that the United States of America listen closely to

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-28-2007/0004617850&EDATE=

[UpInArms]

8. you're right - unfuckingbelievable!

Remember, when I mention al Qaeda, they're the ones who
attacked the United States of America and killed nearly 3,000 people on
September the 11th, 2001.

What was that about "mind control"? I am just sick of these liars and murderers and worse than common criminals.

[CJCRANE]

6. Bushco have created a "public myth".

41% of Americans think that Saddam/Iraq had something to do with 9/11 (according to the latest poll).

How can there ever be any "9/11 Truth" when many Americans don't even know the so-called "official story" (as in the 9/11 Commission Report) let alone the facts and figures not included in the official report.

On edit: there needs to be a freeper version of "9/11 Truth" - i.e. banners saying "Saddam did NOT do 9/11"!

[UpInArms]

9. last fall, one of the teachers at my son's school

as the class who was responsible for 9/11 - only 2 of the 15 students in the class did not say Iraq (my kid was one of those)

[leftchick]

10. that is depressing

:(

[gasperc]

7. artificially inflates alqueda for his own cynical ends

we have a sick, sick president and yesterday he said he like to she Iraq like Israel, a vibrant democracy fighting off the palistian terrorist, Juan Cole explains the diaster of this analogy much better than I can

[harun]

11. Yes he does (link)

http://www.juancole.com/2007/06/bush-turns-iraq-into-israelpalestine.html

I especially liked the label he used on the entry: "monumental stupidity".