The Iraqi cauldron
Questions For a Wartime President
By David IgnatiusTuesday, August 31, 2004
The Washington Post, Excerpts:
I suspect that if you polled U.S. soldiers in Iraq . . . they would say they were fighting for: to avenge Sept. 11 and defeat the terrorists who were responsible for it. The characterization of Iraq as a battleground in the war against terrorism has been repeated frequently by President Bush -- so often, in fact, that it has assumed a life and logic of its own.
Most of the soldiers . . . wouldn't question statements by the president and vice president about prewar links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Yet the Sept. 11 commission, after a careful review, concluded last month that it could find no evidence to support those claims. But nobody has told the soldiers.
The Republican convention this week in New York will reinforce the nation's bond with the events of Sept. 11. Three years after that terrible day, we are surrounded by reminders of the war against Islamic extremism -- in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in our airports, on our streets. Drive to Washington these days and you'll be greeted by huge electronic messages on the interstates ominously warning drivers: "Report Suspicious Behavior."
Bush, who has defined himself through his role as a "wartime president," has a special responsibility this week to explain how that war is going -- and what strategy he will pursue if he wins a second term. Bush's rival, John Kerry, owes the country the same clarity.
America's dilemma in Iraq now, so obvious that people rarely state it, is that a war meant to contain terrorism has had the effect of creating more of it. Most of the new terrorism is in Iraq itself, which was to be a platform in combating terrorism but has instead become a magnet for it.
The Iraqi cauldron was dramatically captured in an article Sunday in the New York Times about the Taliban-like Sunni fundamentalists who now control western Iraq. When decent Iraqis try to work with the Americans to fight these insurgents, they can meet the fate of the local commander of the Iraqi National Guard, who had his head sawed off.
By David IgnatiusTuesday, August 31, 2004
The Washington Post, Excerpts:
I suspect that if you polled U.S. soldiers in Iraq . . . they would say they were fighting for: to avenge Sept. 11 and defeat the terrorists who were responsible for it. The characterization of Iraq as a battleground in the war against terrorism has been repeated frequently by President Bush -- so often, in fact, that it has assumed a life and logic of its own.
Most of the soldiers . . . wouldn't question statements by the president and vice president about prewar links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Yet the Sept. 11 commission, after a careful review, concluded last month that it could find no evidence to support those claims. But nobody has told the soldiers.
The Republican convention this week in New York will reinforce the nation's bond with the events of Sept. 11. Three years after that terrible day, we are surrounded by reminders of the war against Islamic extremism -- in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in our airports, on our streets. Drive to Washington these days and you'll be greeted by huge electronic messages on the interstates ominously warning drivers: "Report Suspicious Behavior."
Bush, who has defined himself through his role as a "wartime president," has a special responsibility this week to explain how that war is going -- and what strategy he will pursue if he wins a second term. Bush's rival, John Kerry, owes the country the same clarity.
America's dilemma in Iraq now, so obvious that people rarely state it, is that a war meant to contain terrorism has had the effect of creating more of it. Most of the new terrorism is in Iraq itself, which was to be a platform in combating terrorism but has instead become a magnet for it.
The Iraqi cauldron was dramatically captured in an article Sunday in the New York Times about the Taliban-like Sunni fundamentalists who now control western Iraq. When decent Iraqis try to work with the Americans to fight these insurgents, they can meet the fate of the local commander of the Iraqi National Guard, who had his head sawed off.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 5:29 AM
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