Four years into the Iraq fiasco, Christopher Hitchens at Slate.com delivers his umpteenth defense of America's worst foreign policy blunder in at least a Century. He asks -- and then answers -- a series of his own questions, like this one: "Was the terror connection {9/11 and Iraq} not exaggerated?"
His answer: "Not by much. The Bush administration never claimed that Iraq had any hand in the events of Sept. 11, 2001."
Say what? That's hysterical. The lie that won't die.
Once more, with feeling, for those up in the cheap seats: At President Bush's final prewar news conference on March 6, 2003, he interchanged Iraq with the attacks of 9/11 eight times, "and eight times he was unchallenged" as related by Frank Rich last Sunday in the NY Times. ABC News correspondent Terry Moran said afterwards that the Washington press corps was left "looking like zombies."
I guess they needed to join Hitch for cocktails at the nearest watering hole.
Believe me, there's a reason 78% of FOX News viewers polled before we went into Iraq said there was a direct link between Al Qaeda, Saddam, and 9/11. With far too many Beltway scribes enabling, the Bush team conflated Saddam and 9/11 to a degree unchecked from the moment the towers fell. Bush talked on and on about Saddam's "mushroom cloud" over America, and you can't find a transcript of Cheney where he wasn't mischaracterizing the truth.
Remember: Richard Clark ran point for our nation from the White House on that horrible day, and wrote in his book "Against All Enemies" that on September 12, Bush "testily" pressed him to find evidence of Saddam's finger prints.
Remember: Former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill revealed in his book with Ron Suskind, "The Price of Loyalty," that Rumsfeld was agitating to topple Saddam from the very first cabinet meeting of this presidency. The tragedy of 9/11 became the excuse to do so.
Remember: Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, British Intelligence, reported back to No. 10 Downing in July 2002 (eight months before the Iraq War started) that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" in Washington for going into Iraq.
Remember: Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card told Elisabeth Bumiller in the NY Times on Sept. 7, 2002 that there was a plan afoot to sell the war in Iraq. His damnable quote: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August."
It is flat-out wrong for Hitchens to continue spreading the falsehood, with a straight face, that "the Bush Administration never claimed Iraq had any hand" in 9/11.
Hey, Hitch: It's how they sold the war.