U.S. links Iraq war to 9/11 terror strike

Don't "Think" About It: Fear and Paranoia Guides American Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON—Deputy Secretary for Infusing Fear and Paranoia in Americans Paul Wolfowitz has performed yet another feat of magic, directly linking the war on Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, despite any evidence to back up such claims.

Wolfowitz, in a series of interviews on U.S. television networks Sunday, for the purposes of convenience and clarity of statement, ignored intelligence reports which have discredited links between Iraq and Al Qaeda and the war on terrorism. Facts? We don't need no stinkin' facts. We've got "moral clarity."

He sought to defend President George W. Bush's administration against charges that it had misled Americans on the threat posed by deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, saying the government cannot wait for "murky" intelligence to crystallize because it may be too late.

"The battle to justify our presence in Iraq and the invasion of Iraq in the face of American soldiers getting picked off everyday like cheap carnival shooting gallery games is now the central battle on the war on terrorism," Wolfowitz said on Meet the Press.

"Stop and think, if in 2001, or in 2000, or in 1999, we had gone to war in Afghanistan to deal with Osama bin Laden, and we had tried to say it's because he's planning to kill 3,000 people in New York, people would have said, you don't have any proof of that," he said.

"Stop and think", he continued "if in 2000 B.C., we had gone to war with the Roman Empire because they were going to crucify Jesus all those years later, people would have said you don't have any proof of that either. Or, if in the year 1308 we had gone to war with Frederick IV and the other Hapsburgs to deal with someone like Hitler, people would have said, you don't have any proof of any Hitler killing any Jews or that Hitler will even exist...I think the lesson of Sept. 11 is that you can't wait until proof after the fact. Hell, when you think about it, predicting the future is damned difficult business and in order to make sure there are no mistakes, we feel it is prudent to attack everyone, just in case they might do something later on in history..."

Wolfowitz would put no timetable on the capture or death of Saddam. He said there was no reason to be confident that would put an end to guerrilla attacks against American troops, but added "It surprises me sometimes that people have forgotten so soon what Sept. 11, I think, should have taught us about terrorism. We need to kill and we need to kill often if we are to survive this dangerous world." he added.

Wolfowitz said an American priority now is to have Iraqis performing guard duties in front of American soldiers. Iraqi women and children make great shields from snipers.

At least 10 U.S. soldiers have been killed while performing guard duty and the American command in Iraq have trained 8,700 local civilians to take over their duties: getting sniped and killed on a daily basis. Although many Iraqis are not happy with their new roles in Democratic Iraq, those who die now will spare themselves the trouble later.

Still, hundreds of Americans are stationed outside key installations and are increasingly becoming targets and the Bush Administration is running out of expendible troops to back up their hollow rhetoric, not to mention, all those absentee votes that traditionally come from the troops overseas during times of presidential election-rigging.

One U.S. Marine was killed and another wounded early yesterday in a grenade attack south of Baghdad, after one of the bloodiest weeks in the guerrilla war against U.S. forces since Bush declared major combat in Iraq was over on May 1.

The military said the attack occurred at 2:35 a.m. in the region controlled by the Marines south of the capital.

On Saturday, four American soldiers were killed in two separate attacks.

Three of them died when a grenade was tossed into their midst while they were playing cards and doing their laundry outside a children's hospital northeast of Baghdad.

The other soldier was killed later in the afternoon when a convoy came under attack west of the capital, bringing to 14 the number of U.S. deaths in Iraq in the past week, most of them following the Tuesday killings of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay.

The deaths brought to 48 the number of U.S. forces killed in combat in Iraq since May 1 when Bush said the major combat phase of the Iraq war had ended. So far 163 U.S. soldiers have died in the war.

Wolfowitz, who just returned from a tour of the oil fields of Iraq, said the deaths of Saddam's sons has increased the amount of information being brought to U.S. officials.

"This is a war that's going to be won not by smothering the country with individual guard posts, although the idea is appealing, it's going to be won by better and better intelligence. By intelligence, we mean arrogant posturing, wishful thinking, outright lying and killing innocent people," Wolfowitz told Fox News Sunday

Wolfowitz did not respond directly when asked if he was specifically linking the Iraqi invasion to the war against Al Qaeda although he did take the opportunity to talk out of the side of his arrogant little mouth.

"I think the lesson of 9/11 is that if you can have a big terrorist attack on your country and you can scare everyone into thinking their lives are in imminent danger and only brave and heroic leaders like George Bush can save them, you've gone a long way towards establishing true democracy in America. The key is to pound home the message of FEAR and make everyone seem RELIANT on their president, no matter how stupid he is, because he uses tough words and doesn't mess around and he's brave and heroic and all that. If we're not prepared to act on the basis of murky intelligence, or if we're not prepared to manipulate intelligence so that we can present lies to the American public to justify our invasions, then you're going to have to act after the fact, and after the fact now means after horrendous things have happened to this country," he said, looking directly into the cameras. "You are all in very big danger my fellow Americans. BIG danger! Your lives are at stake here! Run to your President! Give him all your money, elect him King, do anything you can to protect yourselves because the world is a very dangerous place and we have to kill everyone around us we don't trust in order to save ourselves from danger."