Shock: Andrew Sullivan Senses Panic

Around the edges of the president's demeanor and rhetoric, I sensed a little panic. -- Excitable Andrew Sullivan

But of course you did, darling. But of course you did.

Andy also gives us the left's new talking point, reading an awful lot into a sentence by Bush. Joe Biden hit this point last night; all the liberal parrots will be, um, parroting it soon enough:

I do think that the following, however, was pretty striking:

To complete the mission, we will prevent al-Qaida and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban — a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on America and our friends. And the best way to complete the mission is to help Iraqis build a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself.

The inference here is clear. The U.S. intervention, and its ill-planned, under-manned, haphazard execution, has made Iraq more of a terrorist threat than it might otherwise have been.

No terrorists in Iraq before the war-- none. Certainly Saddam Hussein never hosted a terrorist conference, nor refused the extradition of Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist Zarqawi.

Nor did he expressly offer Al Qaeda a safe haven and operating base in Iraq (an offer which Al Qaeda refused for its own reasons; but Saddam made the offer).

But that's the day's week's month's year's talking point. So get used to it.

posted by Ace at 12:07 PM

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