BCT Editorial – 6/7/07

This page was last updated on June 9, 2007.

Sad, but true; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 7, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Iraq has become a boot camp for terrorists.

“The New York Times reports that the Iraq war has drawn militants from around the world since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of the country. Now, the war ‘is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond.’

“As Jon Stewart, host of the fake news program ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ on Comedy Central noted, Iraq has finally become the country the Bush administration said it was when the United States invaded it.”

[RWC] This is at least the eighth time since October 2004 editorials have afforded credibility to “The Daily Show,” or its spin-off “The Colbert Report.” In fact, this editorial is an example of “truthiness,” a word the Times likes to use.

“That’s sad but true. Our nation and the world are paying and are going to pay a terrible price for what President Bush, Vice President Cheney and others hath wrought in Iraq.”

[RWC] When an editorial cites both the NY Times and a comedy program for its sources about terrorists in Iraq, you know you’re in for an entertaining piece and you know the author is really reaching.

For those whose memory is failing and/or whose information filter is getting in the way, let’s recap Iraq’s history regarding terrorism.

· Saddam Hussein paid $25,000 rewards to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

· Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq before the 2003 invasion. Because of wounds, he hid there after he fled Afghanistan in 2002. As a reminder, Zarqawi was the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq until we killed him during June 2006.

· The convicted chief conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, reached the United States with an Iraqi passport. Yousef was also the mastermind behind the failed 1994 Bojinka Plot intended to blow up multiple planes over the Pacific Ocean en route to the U.S.

· The bomb maker for the 1993 WTC bombing – Abdul Rahman Yasin (an American citizen) – ended up in Iraq after the bombing.

· The mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, during which the terrorists killed a wheelchair-bound American (Leon Klinghoffer), lived in Baghdad since 1994 and was captured there in April 2003 by U.S. Special Forces.

· During the 2003 Iraq invasion, our troops found at least two terrorist training camps, including one with an airplane fuselage to practice hijackings.

Should we have gone into Iraq? Who knows? We are there now and must be successful.

It is not helpful when people paint a fictional picture of pre-war Iraq in an attempt to support their position.