Bush’s New War Lie: If U.S. Leaves Iraq, Terrorists Will Follow Us Home

Because terrorists can’t read maps.

In the run up to war in Iraq, the Bush Administration offered us a tangled web of spin: Iraq possessed WMD, Saddam was building a nuclear bomb, the oil revenues in Iraq would pay for the war, we would cakewalk into Baghdad as liberators.

At his news conference yesterday, Pres. Bush unveiled the latest lie — this one intended to convince the public that the U.S. must stay in Iraq, despite the cost in blood and treasure.

This latest uber-spin is a doozy: If we leave Iraq now, the president says, the terrorists will follow us home. Like most spin from the Bush White House, it sounds reasonable on the surface. The problem, of course, is that it isn’t factual.

The bloodshed in Iraq today is not being perpetrated by “terrorists.” Almost all the violence comes from Iraqi Sunnis trying to kill Iraqi Shi’ites. By definition, it is a civil war. Attacks by non-Iraqi terrorist groups like al Qaeda are all but nil.

Here is the president in full peroration yesterday, floating the new lie:

Now, if you say, are you going to change your strategic objective, it means you’re leaving before the mission is complete. And we’re not going to leave before the mission is complete. I agree with General Abizaid: We leave before the mission is done, the terrorists will follow us here.

And:

And there’s a fundamental difference between many of the Democrats and my party, and that is, they want to leave before the job is completed in Iraq. And again, I repeat, these are decent people. They’re just as American as I am. I just happen to strongly disagree with them. And it’s very important for the American people to understand the consequences of leaving Iraq before the job is done.

This is a global war on terror. I repeat what our major general said — or leading general said in the region. He said, “If we withdraw before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here.” I strongly agree with that. And if you believe that the job of the federal government is to secure this country, it’s really important for you to understand that success in Iraq is part of securing the country.

To recap: If we redeploy out of Iraq, their civil war will follow us home, with Sunnis exploding car bombs to kill Shi’ites on the streets of Fon du Lac and Boise.

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