Worn-Out Deceptions

What's one of the hardest things for George W. Bush to do as POTUS, according to the man himself?

Insure that working families are living above the poverty line? No.

Creating security policies that keep our homeland safe without sacrificing our liberties? Nah.

Repairing the locations and lives disrupted by Hurricane Katrina? Nope.

Howza bout: trying to "connect Iraq to the war on terror?" Bingo!

Normally, such comments don't astonish me. Bush has made a hobby of flip-flopping on the Iraq/GWOT thing, convincing us that the conflict in Iraq was not a result of 9/11 one day, then the next quoting Osama bin Laden (the man responsible for 9/11) as a justification for being in Iraq.

No, my astonishment comes from this (which isn't really a shock when you think about it): "Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, a Senate report says, contradicting assertions President Bush has used to build support for the war in Iraq."

And by "assertions" I'm sure they mean they mean "lies."

So, it's not really hard to see why it's been so difficult for Bush to make the American people think the conflict in Iraq is part of the GWOT: Saddam feared/hated the terrorist behind 9/11 as much as America did, and therefore had no kind of "business relationship" with them. Meaning, Saddam was most likely not trying to sell al-Qaida WMDs. Meaning, while he was a cruel, evil dictator who abused his people, he was not a danger on the scale of bin Laden. Meaning, fighting Iraqi insurgents, frustrated Iraqi civilians and Who-Knows-who-else-Has-Come-In-There since American troops first set foot in Iraq is not, repeat not, helping America in the GWOT.

And America is slowly, but surely, waking up to this.

What would help America would be a world where foreign nations who feel sympathy for our loss on 9/11 trusted us and openly and actively supported us. That won't happen until our troops are shone in a better light: a light where they aren't shown torturing or killing or hunting people down.

And that won't happen until they are assigned a mission with a purpose and a soul. The Senate has revealed their original mission to be based on a lie, and I'm confident many of them knew this. They need to be recalled, refreshed, and redeployed. The Iraqi people need to feel that American troops are there for their protection and aid, not to harm them. Until the troops can act more like humanitarians and less like commandos, the better off we'll all be. And yes, it won't be easy.

Of course, this also requires Bush to admit that he made a mistake. Yep...