The Ocala Star-Banner, 9/10/06:
http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060910/OPINION/209100342/1030/OPINION01

Sep. 10, 2006

Bush plays terror card - again

By BILL PRESS

In a way, you can't blame him.

He can't defend his record on the economy, health care, immigration or
Social Security.

He certainly can't defend the war in Iraq.

There's only one way George Bush and Republicans can possibly win in
November - and that's to scare the hell out of the American people.

So it's no surprise that President Bush gave four speeches in one
week, all trying to tie an unpopular war in Iraq to a still-popular
(barely) war on terror.

If you believe George Bush - and fewer and fewer Americans do - the
war in Iraq is directly linked to Sept. 11;

Iraq is the frontline in the war on terror; and, by fighting
terrorists in Iraq, we are saving ourselves the headache of having to
fight them in downtown Des Moines, Dallas or Seattle.

And, by the way, we're not torturing prisoners, either.

Nonsense.

Bush's attempt to equate the war in Iraq with the war on terror worked
in 2004, but it's not going to work in 2006.

Why?

Because the American people are smarter.

As any thinking person now knows - and any thinking person not on the
Bush payroll would admit - that Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11.

The terrorist organization received no weapons, cash or logistical
support from Iraq.

And Saddam Hussein was no ally of Osama bin Laden.

The road from Ground Zero to Afghanistan was a righteous straight
line.

The road from Afghanistan to Iraq remains a tragic, and unnecessary,
detour.

Nor does the continuing violence in Iraq have anything to do with the
war on terror.

Who's getting killed there today?

Shiites and Sunnis, victims of sectarian violence in Iraq's open civil
warfare.

And American troops, caught in the crossfire, where they don't belong
and should not be forced to stay.

There's only one real connection between Iraq and the war on terror:
the fact that Iraq sucks our time, attention and resources away from
the real enemy.

Yes, there are still evil people planning attacks against the United
States.

But they're not in Iraq.

They're in Germany, France, Spain, the U.K., Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia and other hot spots.

Every time they hear President Bush say we're going to "stay the
course" in Iraq, they say "Thank You, George" for giving them more
time to plot, plan, raise money and round up new recruits.

The most cynical part of Bush's new terror offensive is his promise to
clean up the legal mess at Guantanamo Bay.

This is nothing but pure political grandstanding.

Bush is simply trying to take a disastrous Supreme Court decision -
which declared his military tribunals unconstitutional - and turn it
to his political advantage.

So what does he do?

After admitting he's operating a secret network of CIA torture prisons
around the world and still holding hundreds of prisoners at Gitmo with
no charges filed and no opportunity to see a lawyer, Bush now says
he's willing to start obeying the law.

Sort of. As long as Congress swallows the legislation he's trying to
force down their throats.

Wow!

A president agrees to obey the law . . . maybe.

This is progress?

Americans won't be fooled by Bush's new terror tactics, any more than
they'll be spooked by his new fondness for comparing Osama bin Laden
to Hitler and critics of the Iraq war to Nazi sympathizers.

But Bush keeps plugging away, on the theory that if he tells the same
lies often enough, people will start believing them.

As he explained in March, 2005:

"In my line of work, you gotta keep repeating things over and over and
over again for the truth to sink in . . . to kind of catapult the
propaganda."

Sound familiar?

It should.

Bush's words are strikingly similar to those of another famous
propagandist:

"Of course, the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders
of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple
matter to drag the people along. . . . Voice or no voice, the people
can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All
you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater
danger."

That's how Hermann Goering put it at the Nuremberg trials in 1945.

So who's sounding like a Nazi now?

______________________________________________________

The most pathetic administration in American history.

Harry

If you believe George Bush - and fewer and fewer Americans do - the
war in Iraq is directly linked to Sept. 11;