When down in the polls, exploit Sept. 11

In a way, you can't blame President Bush. After all, unless he can tie it to Sept. 11, there's no way he can justify his war in Iraq. Still, Bush's repeated attempts to score cheap political points on the backs of 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11 is despicable.

Wrap himself in Sept. 11. That's what Bush does whenever he's desperate. In 2004, he did so in every campaign speech. He also made 9-11 the centerpiece of the 2004 national convention. And now, with polls showing that most Americans believe the war in Iraq was a huge mistake, he's at it again – delivering the same drivel in a prime-time speech at Fort Bragg, where troops were forced to serve as political props for the president, applauding only (once) when directed by White House aides.

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In convincing networks to carry the president's address, the White House trumpeted a new speech containing bold, new directions in Iraq. Networks should sue for false advertising. There was nothing new in the whole speech. Not one single line. It was pure recycled campaign garbage. Bush repeated the same arguments he made while running against John Kerry: The war in Iraq began on Sept. 11. The war in Iraq is but the latest battleground in the war on terror. We're fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

Nonsense! It wasn't true then and it's not true today. Bush must think either we're stupid or have short memories. Or, if he repeats a lie often enough, Americans will believe it. No, we won't be fooled.

Let the truth be told one more time: Bush's war in Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11. Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were not allies and did not work together. Nor was Iraq involved in the planning, funding or execution of the Sept. 11 attacks. That's now a matter of official record. After spending a year investigating all the allegations of a Hussein-bin Laden connection, the 9-11 Commission concluded there is "no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida cooperated on attacks against the United States."

Let the truth be told one more time: The war on terror began in Afghanistan, in the rightful pursuit of those who attacked us on Sept. 11. Unfortunately, it also ended there. Suddenly, we abandoned efforts to hunt down Osama bin Laden, who's still on the loose. We left huge parts of Afghanistan in the hands of hostile warlords. And instead of moving on to countries where the al-Qaida were active, we headed to Iraq, where they were not.

Bush's Iraq war was not an extension of the war on terror, but a monumental and dangerous distraction from it. By taking a detour to Iraq, we've given al-Qaida over three years to regroup and recruit new members. Only the naive would think they're not using this time to plan new attacks on U.S. soil. Meanwhile, Americans in Iraq are getting killed every day by al-Qaida wannabes, able to move into the country only because Bush's war left it in chaos, with insufficient troops to restore order and insufficient armor to protect the few troops who are there. Iraq is a terrorist battleground today because we made it so.

So why Iraq? Not because of Sept. 11, but because, for whatever demented reason – revenge for the attacks on his father? – Bush bought into a war in Iraq that neocons Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz had been planning long before 9-11. Unable to sell war against Saddam Hussein to a skeptical Bill Clinton in 1998, they sold it to a gullible George W. Bush in 2001. He's been trying to make the connection to Sept. 11 ever since.

The worst part about Bush's exploiting 9-11 is that he promised not to. In a meeting with congressional leaders in January 2002, while the nation was still united in the glow of post-Sept. 11 bipartisanship, Bush promised leaders of both parties never to use that tragedy as a political issue.

For George W. Bush, that's just one more broken promise. Which, of course, means nothing to him. He's no more committed to keeping his promises than he is to telling the truth.