Left News and Views

Fear sells.

And no one knows it better than the two-headed monster better know as Bush-Rove. This monster, in its visible mode as President Bush, moved back into its leadership by fear mode this week, in spite of the fact that the voters resoundingly rejected the tactics in last November’s mid-term elections and even more people today are rejecting his policies than did during the polling

Seeing casualties mount to the point where each month marks a new record for the number of U.S. troops killed in 2007, even Bush must finally have recognized that more and more Republicans are joining in the revolt against his reckless policies. So, what does he do? He roles out his mindless mantra that if we leave Iraq, our enemies will follow us home.

But at his news conference yesterday, he kind of got his feet caught up in his mouth again. After pointing out once again that we are fighting Islamic extremists in Iraq so we don’t have to fight them here and that if we leave, they will follow us home, he later really got carried away by saying they can hit us anywhere in the world at any time.

So which is it, Mr. Bush? Why should we be wasting innocent lives in Iraq if our enemies there can hit us anywhere they want at any time?

By now, of course, polls show that the majority of Americans are now immune to his mindless blather – and, thank goodness, his fear mongering – but he hit new lows yesterday. But, let’s set the record straight once more.

In a survey of military and diplomatic analysts, McClatchy clearly debunks Bush’s claim:

U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic experts in Bush’s own government say the violence in Iraq is primarily a struggle for power between Shiite and Sunni Muslim Iraqis seeking to dominate their society, not a crusade by radical Sunni jihadists bent on carrying the battle to the United States.

Foreign-born jihadists are present in Iraq, but they’re believed to number only between 4 percent and 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgent fighters —1,200 to 3,000 terrorists — according to the Defense Intelligence Agency and a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center-right research center.
“Attacks by terrorist groups account for only a fraction of insurgent violence,” said a February DIA report.

While acknowledging that terrorists could commit a catastrophic act on U.S. soil at any time [now Bus agrees with this assessment] — whether U.S. forces are in Iraq or not — the likelihood that enemy combatants from Iraq might follow departing U.S. forces back to the United States is remote at best, experts say.

Other experts contend the assertion is ludicrous. Rather than revert to his politics of fear, Bush should take his head out of the ground and listen to the people who elected him.

According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, Americans now view the war in Iraq more negatively than at any time since the invasion more than four years ago.

Sixty-one percent of Americans say the United States should have stayed out of Iraq and 76 percent say things are going badly there, including 47 percent who say things are going very badly, the poll found.

Clearly, the policies of Bush and company have made us and the rest of the world more susceptible to attacks from the terrorists and it is time to put an end to the madness. God alone know what it will take to make Bush recognize this truth.