Just a bit of unfinished business.

Per Teribus 5 Jan 2006 8:13 PM-- "Your question has been answered. You just do not like the answer."

Au contraire---- (frightfully sorry about the French--I know using French casts grave doubt on my patriotism. But I can live with that)---the question has NEVER been answered.

For obvious reasons--because "Before Sept 11 many in the world believed Saddam Hussein could be contained" does--obviously--link Saddam Hussein and September 11.

As does "Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans, this time armed by Saddam Hussein."


And in fact these 2 sentences from the 2003 State of the Union are only a tiny part of a purposeful--and brilliantly successful--propaganda campaign by the Bush regime, starting at least by mid 2002 and going up to the actual March 2003 invasion of Iraq (and beyond, of course). This campaign was necessary from the Bush regime's perspective because in the early days after 9-11 the official Bush line was that there was no evidence linking Saddam to 9-11--see your own 16 Sept 2001 Cheney statement.

When the Bush maladministration-- (a tip of the hat to Arne for that particularly felicitous formulation)--decided to invade Iraq, they had to therefore create the impression in the minds of the US public that there were in fact strong links between Saddam and al-Queda (with the strong implication that Saddam also had links to 9-11.)

This propaganda campaign is of course in total disregard of the facts--not only is there no evidence linking Saddam to 9-11, but 9-11 had negative results for Saddam--many of the loose arrangements he had been exploiting up to that time were then tightened up.

However, neither you nor any other Bushite has yet come up with a clear statement, by Bush or a crony, between mid 2002 and March 2003, to deny a link between Saddam and 9-11. The Bush regime wanted to confuse 9-11, Saddam and al-Queda in the minds of the US public--and did it expertly, with the desired results.

Your refusal to acknowledge the propaganda campaign cited above is based on nothing more or less than the perceived damage to your ego if you admit you were wrong---as the ideologically unblinkered can clearly see.