Rumsfeld's Point Today Didn't Mesh With Previous Administration Iraq Spin

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking on ABC's This Week, had a very strange response to last week's call from Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) to withdraw all U.S. troops within six months.

Rumsfeld told host George Stephanopoulos today that talk of withdrawal tells insurgents that "if they wait, they prevail, and they'll be able to turn that country into a haven for terrorism."

The argument doesn't make any sense.

"They'll" is short for "they will." It's the future tense. So, one could reasonably argue that Rumsfeld's words could just as easily mean "they are not currently able to turn that country into a haven for terrorism."

Iraq is not currently a haven for terrorism? Has Rumsfeld not been paying attention ... to the official statements of the Bush Administration? This is what happens when Karl Rove gets distracted -- people in the administration forget what the official talking points are ...

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In today's news, you have word-- although deemed "not credible" by the administration -- that a gunfight in the <strong>Iraqi</strong> city of Mosul took the life of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The U.S. has a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi's head. Why? Because it believes he's a terrorist. From where is he launching his terrorist attacks? The administration says Iraq.

But even when al-Zarqawi is not mentioned, the administration has -- at least since it couldn't find weapons of mass destruction -- made Iraqi terrorism a central argument for why we're fighting in Iraq.

For example, President Bush said this in his prime-time June 28 speech to the nation:

BUSH: Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate.

Seems pretty straightforward. But that was one of the few straightforward sentences Bush delivered that night. Maybe Rumsfeld was confused as Bush discussed terrorists and "their objectives," as if Al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency thought as one. Maybe he got lost as he heard the president use the mysterious "they" or "them" 39 times to describe the blended "terrorists."

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Still, the administration talking point about terrorism in Iraq goes back to when the administration outlined its pre-war "intelligence" on Iraq.

You may remember Bush's infamous speech in Cincinnati, in October, 2002. That was the speech in which Bush first used claims made by captured Al Qaeda commander Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi -- eight months after the Defense Intelligence Agency had issued a report stating that it was "likely" that al-Libi was “intentionally misleading” his debriefers.

In that same speech, Bush said this about Iraq and terrorism:

BUSH: Over the years, Iraq has provided safe haven to terrorists such as Abu Nidal, whose terror organization carried out more than ninety terrorist attacks in twenty countries that killed or injured nearly 900 people, including 12 Americans.

Of course, a lot of things in that speech turned out to be untrue. Maybe Rumsfeld didn't pay attention to the spin then. Maybe he's not paying attention to the spin now.

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This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

All this talking wont make problems go away.
Still big big problems.
Funny things is, dont need to be one in the first place.

WHO LET THE FREAKING CHIMP LOOSE WITH SUCH DEADLY TOYS AS THE AMERICAN MILITARY???????

The corrupted congress. Gee as if the US people ever has a say.

You get the congress from the vote the machine gives not the vote you have.

they probably spent many hours trying to forge talking points, good defenses, be prepared for anything, etc ad nauseum.

It's tough keeping your lies straight!!! Especially when people keep track, write down quotes, ask you questions, force you to remember and so on. The tape recorder is always on!!!

This ugly fact must have given them countless stomach aches and sleepless nights, trying to keep their shit together.

But, the biggest problem with these men is that they have big egos. It's really hard to get them to follow orders.

the initial looting in Baghdad was not as pervasive as it appeared because it was just the same video clip played over again on many networks?

If we follow that logic, the staged for cable TV toppling of the Saddam statue is even more fake. We were played (although I never bought into it) and Rummy is a snake. We have pictures of him shaking Saddam’s hand, shortly after securing the deal for the gasses that Saddam could use on his own people.

This cabal is pure evil.

is from the 80s. We're supposed to forget that, but remember the things Saddam did with the aid provided by Reagan and Bush Sr.

I agree, it must be hard to keep the talking points straight.

click their heels Bush Cult.