I’m going to try to keep this short, since my free time over the past week has been frighteningly spare. But, I don’t want to avoid this completely.

First off, if you title a post “The Clear Connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda”, but then it takes you over 2500 words to explain those connections — well, let’s just say your defintion of “clear” is somewhat different than mine.

Now then… let me make sure I understand your points from that long, long post. To sum up: there is no direct connection between Saddam and Bin Laden. But, there have been connections between Saddam (or his people) and some people that now work for/with Bin Laden – specifically this guy Zawahiri, who merged his Egyptian Islamic Jihad group into al-Qaeda back in 1998. And the one piece of evidence that shows contact between Iraq and Zawahiri is a Kurdish daily Kurdistani Nwe, which published a letter on its front page from Saddam.

First, even if I agree that it’s 100% legit — that’s AWFUL thin. One handwritten letter, requesting a meeting? That’s enough to justify an invasion and overthrow of a sovereign country who did not attack us, and did not have the capacity to attack us?

Secondly, let me say – I’m a bit skeptic.

That newspaper is the publication of a Kurdish political party, The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. So, I think we need to consider the source. (And seriously, when I have people on this blog telling me they don’t take anything at face value from the NYT, let’s not be hypocritical and automatically assume the letter MUST be real, since it was published. Would you all refuse to question any report put out by the DNC?)

Secondly, since we already have CIA officers on record confirming that they received orders from Dick Cheney’s office to forge letters tying Saddam to the 9/11 attack — I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to question its authenticity.

I can find nothing online that confirms the letter’s authenticity – if you have a link, AJ, please share.

You failed to recognize Saddam and Zawahiri’s decade long ties. There are records of Saddam supporting Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a precursor organization to al-Qaeda. Zawahiri bright EIJ into al-Qaeda when he joined forces with Bin Laden.

I don’t have to ‘think’ about Saddam working with Islamists, we have recorded proof of it. In fact, Saddam and Zawahiri discussed joint attacks after 9-11. And in 1999 ABC News linked Saddam to al-Qaeda.

If you are as open minded as you claim, then you would change your entire perspective on Iraq based on that mistaken assumption on your part.

I don’t care how you deal with reality, that is your choice and your responsibility. But remember, you cannot have any credibility on a matter you won’t face all the facts on.

Well, thank you – I really do appreciate it. I actually applied for the Naval Academy in 86, but unfortunately ran into some medical issues (my eyesight ain’t so great). I would’ve liked to have been Ensign Breschau (heh), but it didn’t happen. (I’m fairly certain my father was happy with the “tuition=$0″ concept, but I like to think there was some patriotism in there too.) Throwing a basketball from my knees was a weird test, but I ruled in the shuttle run. When I told my Congressman “I’d like to serve in nuclear submarines” (I had the build for it then – 5-10, 145 lbs), they got very happy about it.

But, consider for a moment – Bin Laden and Saddam working together? Bin Laden = bad guy. Saddam = bad guy. No one questions that. But them working together? They were as religiously opposed as you can get – if the sectarian violence in Iraq after the fall of Saddam didn’t convince you of that, you simply weren’t paying attention.

“It is absurd to think that Saddam was the ONLY dictator in the region who did not want to get wmd’s”

And that’s perfectly fine – I’m sure he did want them, on a grand scale. But, doesn’t the fact that our government told you that he had them, and then couldn’t find a single one – doesn’t that bother you? I mean, you do know he used that as a primary reason for invasion, right? And when it turned out that your leader outright LIED to you – doesn’t that bother you at all?

“I realize Afghanistan was a training ground for Al Q’aida, but wasn’t it mostly Saudi nationals and not the Taliban who attacked the U.S.?”

Well, yes, actually they were most Saudi nationals. But if anyone on this planet thinks that the US is going to attack Saudi Arabia – then you are immediately disqualified from political discussion. NA GA HA PEN.

(The whole Truther meme about the Bin Laden family flown out of the US right after 9/11 – yeah, whatever.)

The Taliban supported Al Qaeda, and gave comfort to Bin Laden. That was an easy to understand mission – I never had a problem with those orders.

I mean, we didn’t bomb Lockport, NY after the OK city bombings.

It is absurd to think that Saddam was the ONLY dictator in the region who did not want to get wmd’s….especially after he had already used them before. It would have been malfeasance NOT to go after him. You know and I know it.

And Bresch, because I am going to believe you, I think you have a lot of courage. And, because I am going to believe you, thank you for your service to America.

Yes, how many of the 9/11 terrorists came from Afghanistan or trained in Afghanistan or were Taliban?

Okay, then a serious answer.  All al Qaeda operations were directed from their headquarters in Afghanistan which was ruled by the Taliban.  So, a correct answer would be that all of the 9/11 terrorists were acting under directions of people in Afghan with the Taliban’s ok no matter what their nationality.

breschau

“Oh, and I’m a pathological liar.” Tell ya what, buddy – you go on believing whatever you want. If your impression of me based upon some random Google is more important than actually addressing the points that I’m making, then hey – knock yourself out. One question for ya though: how was I able to enlist in the US armed forces back when I was a.. hold on… umm, 13 year old Scot?

Starting with the pathological liar bit, how does anyone place any credibility on anything you say?  Who says you enlisted in the US armed forces when you were 13, or any age for that matter.

 Ray(t**d)

I realize Afghanistan was a training ground for Al Q’aida, but wasn’t it mostly Saudi nationals and not the Taliban who attacked the U.S.?

Is that supposed to be a serious question?

Good point – you can’t appear weak to your enemies. When we went to Afghanistan, I was fully in favor of it: they had attacked us, and we had a clear mission.
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I realize Afghanistan was a training ground for Al Q’aida, but wasn’t it mostly Saudi nationals and not the Taliban who attacked the U.S.?

Ray

Iraq had neither of those points going for it. I was against it then, I’m against it now. And, because it distracted us from the true battlefield, Afghanistan/Pakistan has deteriorated into its recent and current mess.

And would you like to know a very clear way of looking “weak”? Making threats against another country that you know you can’t back up. I’d really like McCain to, just once, give us an actual, real-world example of what we should do if Russia ignores us. Sure, he’s made plenty of tough, “We can’t put up with this” speeches – but notice that he hasn’t even once gave an example of an actual action he thinks we should do. It’s baseless rhetoric – saber-rattling without a saber.

Osama attacked the US because, according to him, the US was soft and did nothing after 1993… and fled a la Black Hawk Down.

Weakness does not keep us safe. We say what we mean and we mean what we say: Don’t mess with America. No apologies.

“No one has seen Barack since the weekend.”

HE. IS. ON. VACATION.

He made a statement which clearly laid out his views. Now, he’s visiting his mother’s grave, doing some bodysurfing, and generally relaxing – afterall, he has been campaigning non-stop for basically 18 months. What would you like him to do – call a press conference every day this week to let everyone know, “Hey, I still feel the same way I did on Monday. Just checking in to make sure you all know”? Yup – that would be productive.

And yes, McCain has been all over this – making an absolute fool of himself. Now this Georgian conflict is “the first serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War”? Umm, okay – the two Gulf Wars, 9/11, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the al-Aqsa Intifada were… what, exactly?

(Just for a moment, try to imagine it was Obama that made that remark. And then, imagine the howling that would be happening on Fox News for the next two weeks.)

Your link only proves AJ’s point. No one has seen Barack since the weekend. No one has heard from him since Mon or Tues. He is noticably missing from the stage. I shouldn’t need to ‘Google’ him to find him.

And I do check out some uber-liberal sites, like Moveon.org and Salon.com. But only when I need a laugh. I get a giggle out of stupid human tricks.

I think everyone is too hard on ALL politicians. It’s ridiculous to expect even the most intelligent and informed politicians to have an ideal answer for almost every question and excellent memory recall for almost everything.
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If Obama gets in (and I don’t care if he does or not) I can imagine him putting a stop to the crazy political antics like “Can you please spell potato Mr President?” or “How much is a carton of milk Mr. President?”

Ray

Fine, take your pick. Honestly, this is what we’ve come down to? I have to make your Google searches for you?

And what exactly is so toxic about being exposed to how the “other side” thinks anyway? Hey, I’m still here after AJ’s “Barack wants to turn the human race into The Matrix” post, so I could think you could actually handle a view eye balls on Time/CNN. (And you do realize that Joe Klein based his entire series of articles about the FISA votes last year upon talking points he got from a GOP congressman, right? His actual objective nature recently has been the cause of many “Hey, did you put the real Joe Klein in a pod?” comments from left-leaning commenters on his blog recently.)

I mean, if I cut out all of the “too conservative” web sites from my Bookmarks list, I certainly couldn’t come here. Hell, AJ is actually praising McCain’s various responses to the Russia/Georgia thing, which is just crazy talk. Yeah – let’s go to war with Russia! Ummm.. with what, exactly? If we can’t put extra brigades into the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, where we KNOW without a doubt that Al Qaede and Bin Landen are hanging out – what are we doing to threaten Russia with?