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Bush was right on Iraq
11.5.2006
Gary Bauer
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Yesterday brought
another round of bad polling news for President
Bush. A Gallup/USA Today poll pegged the president's
approval rating at a dismal 31%, with 65%
disapproving of his job performance. CNN pollsters
delved into the latter figure to try and find out
exactly what issues were driving the president's
numbers down.
The top issue cited by those who disapproved was the
war in Iraq at 56%, with 58% saying they disapproved
of the decision to go war, and 53% saying the
decision to invade Iraq has made the U.S. less safe
from terrorism.
At the same time, there is new information coming
out about exactly what prompted U.S. action against
Saddam Hussein. Columnist Joel Mowbray has devoted
significant time and energy to reviewing post-war
intelligence information coming out of Iraq, and his
findings are shocking. Even more so, however, has
been the Big Media blackout of this information that
goes a long way toward vindicating the president. |
Photo:
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According to Mowbray, the Pentagon commissioned an
after-action analysis report on Iraq. The 230-page
book-length report analyzed thousands of Iraqi
documents and interviews with over 100 officials of
Saddam's regime. The report details Saddam's active
role in terrorism dating back to 1994 with the
establishment of Al Qaeda-like terrorist training
camps run by the Fedayeen, which trained some 7,200
Iraqis in the art of terrorism in the first year
alone. By 1998, these camps were training jihadists
from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian
territories, and other Gulf states. Then there is
this statement from a summary of the Pentagon report
in Foreign Affairs magazine:
In a document dated May 1999, Saddam's older son,
Uday, ordered preparations for special operations,
assassinations, and bombings, for the centers and
traitor symbols in London, Iran and the self-ruled
areas [Kurdistan]. Preparations for Blessed July, a
regime-directed wave of martyrdom operations against
targets in the West, were well under way at the time
of the coalition invasion.
I want to draw your attention to that last line. In
June of 2004, one year after the invasion of Iraq,
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a stunning
announcement that got virtually no coverage here in
the United States. Here is an excerpt from an
Associated Press report out of Kazakstan on June 19,
2004, about Putin's statement:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday his
government warned Washington that Saddam Hussein's
regime was preparing attacks in the United States
and its interests abroad -- an assertion that
appears to bolster President Bush's contention that
Iraq was a threat. After Sept. 11, 2001, and before
the start of the military operation in Iraq, the
Russian special services. . . received information
that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing
terrorist attacks in the United States and outside
it against the U.S. military and other interests,
Putin said.
Now, put yourself in President Bush's position.
Three thousand Americans have recently been murdered
in downtown Manhattan by jihadists, and the
president of Russia tells you that Saddam is
preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and
outside it against the U.S. military and other
interests. We now know -- from captured Iraqi
documents -- that Putin was telling the truth.
Yesterday I met with a retired Israeli general, a
man who has been on the frontlines of the war
against terrorism for many, many years. Toward the
end of the conversation, I asked him why the United
States has not been hit again since September 11th.
He said it could be strategy, but there is evidence
that the Islamists were shocked by President Bush's
strong reaction. They didn't believe we had the will
to fight back. After all, the U.S. response to a
string of terrorist attacks, beginning with the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center towers, was to
treat each incident as an unrelated criminal offense,
rather than coordinated acts of war committed by a
common enemy. That mentality changed after September
11th. The Israeli general I spoke with said Bush is
absolutely right that by taking the war to
Islamofascists, we are preventing them from bringing
the war to us. He said that was the lesson Israel
has learned. Against this enemy, so totally consumed
with hatred and so determined to kill, the best
defense is a good offense.
My friends, as frustrating as the headlines out of
Iraq may be, the alternative to a good offense is to
invite more atrocities like September 11th. As we
now know, that is clearly what Saddam Hussein
intended. I don't know about you, but I believe
President Bush made the right call by invading Iraq
and removing that threat against America.
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