Time To Start Laughing At These Imbeciles

How did 70% of the USA come to believe that Saddam was involved in 9/11? And how come 40% still believe it?

Because Bush, Cheney and others (including Howard and Blair) have consistently and repeatedly walked the fine line between wilfully misleading people and straight-out lying.

I gathered a few quotes from Bush today:

"I have also determined that the use of armed force against Iraq is consistent with taking necessary action against those nations who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11." - Bush letter to Congress, justifying the invasion of Iraq.

"Iraq has sent bomb-making and document-forging experts to work with al Qaeda," Bush said on Feb. 6, 2003, on the eve of war. "Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training."

"We have removed an ally of Al Qaeda." - Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.

"We have carried the fight to the enemy ... so that we do not meet him again on our own streets" - Bush explaining why it's good that Iraqis are dying, not US citizens.

Here's what the 9/11 Commission reported:

"A senior Iraqi intelligence official reportedly made three trips to Sudan, finally meeting bin Ladin [sic] in 1994. Bin Ladin is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded. There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after Bin Ladin had returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship. Two senior Bin Ladin associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq. We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

Bush now says:

"This administration never said that the 9-11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, for example, Iraqi intelligence agents met with (Osama) bin Laden, the head of al Qaeda in the Sudan."

In other words, yes, we misled people, we deliberately led them astray, but we still refuse to acknowledge that those "contacts" amounted to nothing. Because who knows? Just because there is "no credible evidence" today doesn't mean we won't find some tomorrow (even if we have already captured, interrogated and even tortured just about anybody who could provide any meaningful information, plus a few thousand other innocents, and given a full enquiry months of time and millions of dollars to discover nothing but sheer incompetence on our part).

So now it is up to the "Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy" to prove ... what? That there was no real connection between Saddam and Al-Quaeda? It was strongly suspected by many millions of anti-war protesters before the war even began, and now it has been proven! Bush and his followers simply refuse to recognize it as a fact. What can you do about that?

The Emperor has no clothes, but still insists that he is adorned in the most splendid finery. Half the people in the street still seem to believe him. There is nothing left to do but laugh...