If you read this editorial in the New York Times from last week, it may occur to you that it is factually contradicted by today's article from Thom Shanker (linked to in my previous post).
Try the opening line:
It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11.
Note the construction. It tries to yoke together the two ideas of a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq and Saddam and the atrocities of 11 September 2001. But that is a sloppy dodge, for one half of that is undeniably true and the other is a point that was never made by the President (of whom the Times demands an apology for believing the same intelligence that he and every other high-ranking member of our Government was provided with).
And try this other accusation from the editorial:
[Bush]is responsible for the administration's actions since then [i.e., 11 September 2001]. That includes, inexcusably, selling the false Iraq-Qaeda claim to Americans.
Ultimately, it does not matter whether President Bush is responsible for making the link between Saddam and 11 September 2001: most of the American people instinctively understood that Saddamite Iraq was a bad actor in the world of Middle Eastern-Islamofascist terrorism and that they were not going to be allowed to perpetually flout our authority. One important reason for this is that, in a world where the fears of dirty bombs and suitcase nukes and nerve gas attacks are only lying dormant, we must establish ourselves more firmly in the middle of the Islamic world than we ever have before. We must have a place from which we can project our military power and secure our economic interests in the oil of the Middle East. No apologies for that, comrade.
Keep debating how the fuse was lit. Those of us who support and honor our military's hard work and sacrifices will keep it in mind that no terror attack has been made on our own shores in almost three years. If you think that that's not the consequence of our war efforts and our increased security measures at home, then you're a dope.