Posted on 05/23/2007 11:48:39 AM PDT by SmithL
New London -- President Bush portrayed the Iraq war as a battle between the U.S. and al-Qaida on Wednesday and shared nuggets of intelligence to contend Osama bin Laden was setting up a terrorist cell in Iraq to strike targets in America.
Bush, who faces a public weary of war and is at odds with Democrats in Congress over funding troops, said that while the Sept. 11 attacks occurred in 2001, Americans still face a major threat from terrorists.
"In the minds of al-Qaida leaders, 9/11 was just a down payment on violence yet to come," Bush said during a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in which he defended his decision to order a troop buildup in Iraq. "It is tempting to believe that the calm here at home after 9/11 means that the danger to our country has passed."
"Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm," he said. "All around us, dangerous winds are swirling and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."
Critics of the war insist that U.S. troops are in the middle of fights among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
"As global terror threats remain very real, President Bush is sinking more money and sending more troops to referee Iraq's civil war, when those precious resources would be better spent in finishing the mission left unaccomplished in Afghanistan," said Brian Katulis, a national security expert at the Center for American Progress think tank.
The White House has repeatedly said the U.S. and its allies will be successful when the Iraqis can sustain, govern and defend themselves, yet Bush used his speech to stress the threat from al-Qaida activities in Iraq.
"Hear the words of Osama bin Laden: He calls the struggle in Iraq a `war of destiny,'"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It would seem self-evident, except to those people who hate Bush more than they hate America’s enemies.
The Bush plan for the thousands of proto-jihadis in the US now is to give them automatic probationary status and Z Visas so they can have a part of the American DREAM and thereby feel good and stop their nasty ways.
Strategery!
This IS a progressive "think" tank... If leftists don't like it, I do.
Wrong. Iraq is fast becoming a side show. Iran is the focus of terror in the middle east, driving the terrorists across the region.
Knock yourself out and let us know when you get elected to something.
The immigration bill has not passed and probably won't, how could that have created the problem as you suggest? The immigration bill is more McCain/Kennedy in origin, Bush didn't write it and he might veto it. You and I already know the dangerous time we live in true, but I think some people, a lot of people, don't realize how close to harm we are. The President of the US is brighter than a bucket of rocks, I suspect he is smarter than either of us.
He is surely well informed about how the American people are revolting against his illegal alien stance, that's for sure. Yet he still stands shoulder to shoulder with Teddy Kennedy on an amnesty program for 20 million criminals. The fact he just might be smarter than I thought is doubly scarey; though any President who calls Americans who want to protect our country and uphold our immigration laws "vigilantes", is well...... dumber than a bucket of rocks. Or perhaps he is just determined to disregard our borders so he can help introduce the New World Order? Either way his legacy will be Carteresque, or worse.
It never ceases to amaze me how this man's devout followers will try to cover for him, no matter how shallow they make themselves look in the process, and no matter how transparent and wafer thin their defense for him is. And yes, I am aware that President's don't write bills, but they have enourmous power to help push them through. Bush has been the single most powerful advocate for illegal aliens in America. - Kennedy, Gore, Bush, globalists all, who are cut from the same privileged, arrogant mold. They will bring change to YOU that THEY will never have to deal with.
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