While Cheney is trying to lie his way out of past lies on MTP this morning, I decided to post this clip from Katie Couric's interview of Bush last week as kind of a lead up to the spin that is going on this morning.
Download 
Download BUSH: There – it's – you know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror. I believe it. As I told you, Osama bin Laden believes it.
First off we had the Senate Intelligence Committee report come out about 36 hours this interview saying there was absolutely no connection between Osama and Saddam, and went as far to say that Saddam despised Muslim extremists like Osama. Even more importantly is what our entering Iraq has done for Osama:
- It has become a recruiting poster for al Qaeda
- It has redirected the focus of our energies from Afghanistan to Iraq. Since then we have seen the Taliban make a massive comeback in Afghanistan.
- A world that once viewed us as a friend and gave us all their support has left us. We are now left with the U.K. and that ally is fast moving away from us.
Perhaps Bush isn't too far off base with this comment. Osama may very well believe it, but believes it for different reasons. He has seen Iraq help his cause and even help him gain support, and Bush played right into his hand on it. The fact of the matter is Iraq was no threat to America before we invaded. Now we have invaded and that decision turned it into a "central front" in the war on terror. While we did that, Osama's key support group, the Taliban, was given a little breathing room to rebuild, and they did just that.
You can read the entire transcript of Bush's interview here: part 1, part 2 and view the entire interview here
(h/t Mike for the video and links)
