Bush: Iraq Had Nothing to Do With 9/11
Posted on August 21, 2006
In his press conference today, President Bush admitted again that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 and that Saddam Hussein did not have any weapons of mass destruction.
QUESTION: A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn't gone in. How do you square all of that?Well, that's interesting, considering that Dick Cheney is still going around giving speeches saying that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, which is absurd, given Saddam and Osama bin Laden's mutual hatred and distrust for one another. Saddam was a secular leader in a Middle East full of religious fantatics. Women had more rights under Saddam than they do now, as a matter of fact. That doesn't mean he was a benevolent leader; he was a ruthless dictator. But let's at least keep our facts straight. He had nothing to do with 9/11. So now, years later, our president admits what the CIA has been saying all along.BUSH: I square it because imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein, who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who had relations with Zarqawi. You know, I've heard this theory about, you know, everything was just fine until we arrived [in Iraq] and � you know, the stir-up-the-hornet's-nest theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were �
QUESTION: What did Iraq have to do with that?
BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?
QUESTION: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.
BUSH: Nothing. . . . .Except for it's part of � and nobody's ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a � Iraq � the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize�
During the press conference, Bush also said that we'll never leave Iraq while he's in office. 59% of Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq, and casualties are mounting while Bush's poll numbers are dropping. It will be interesting to see how many Republican congressmen will say "thanks, but no thanks" when Bush offers to campaign for them in the upcoming mid-term elections.