Selling his plan for escalating the war in Iraq

Selling his plan for escalating the war in Iraq, President Bush claimed, "the consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits."

Amy Zalman, Ph.D. writes, "There is no evidence that any American presence in Iraq will forestall Islamist extremism, nor that leaving or engaging differently would by itself lead to an increase." - Bush's Speech Sees Iraq as Fatal Battleground for Terrorism Vs. Freedom

I think she should point out that there is evidence that staying in Iraq actually increases the anger and recruitment of Islamist extremists.



Zalman does point out that the speech indicated a "poor understanding of the region." But she should explain it so people can understand it. She should explain that "terrorism vs freedom" is a false premise about why we were attacked on 9/11. The premise for why we were attacked on 9/11, the premise for the war on terror, is a lie. We were not attacked on 9/11 because "they hate our freedoms." We were attacked by Al-Qaeda because of specific foreign policies and not "because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world" as Bush claimed on 9/11.

Terrorists are attacking us for the same reason terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 1993. Ramzi Yousef sent his letter to the NYT stating the motive for attacking the WTC in 1993, "this action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel the state of terrorism and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region."

Osama bin Laden has made his motives known, "we swore that America wouldn't live in security until we live it truly in Palestine . This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own people's interest. America won't get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula , and until it stops its support of Israel."

President Bush says, "the Commander-in-Chief ought to listen to what the enemy says." I think President Bush should do what he says. Bin Laden has repeated the motives by reminding people that "in 1998, the Mujahideen warned America to cease their support to the Jews and to leave the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries, but the enemy refused to heed this warning ..." He also pointed out that President Bush was hiding the truth about their motives, "the Mujahideen saw the black gang of thugs in the White House hiding the Truth, and their stupid and foolish leader, who is elected and supported by his people, denying reality and proclaiming that we (the Mujahideen) were striking them because we were jealous of them (the Americans), whereas the reality is that we are striking them because of their evil and injustice in the whole of the Islamic World, especially in Iraq and Palestine and their occupation of the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries."

Dishonesty about 9/11 motives robs Americans of the freedom to decide for ourselves if we want to put our lives at risk over specific foreign policies.

Bush lied about why we were attacked on 9/11.

The motives for 9/11 are no mystery. The motives have been stated by several people clearly and repeatedly for years. The terrorists are not attacking us in order to force us to convert to Islam or because we don't believe in Islam or that they don't like freedom or that they are envious.