Osama and Saddam, Doug and Steve
By Media Matters takes apart Stephen F. Hayes argument that Bin Laden and Hussein had an operational relationship between 1990 and 2003.
This one requires just a smidgeon of common sense. A connection between Bin Laden and Hussein is all that this administration needs. If one were found, then Gulf War II isn’t a preventative war, and isn’t really even a pre-emptive war. It’s a retributive war, and everyone loves a retributive war, even me. All the questions about the drive to war vanish when evidence of an alliance comes to light. Indeed, the question becomes less “Why did we invade Iraq,” and more “Why didn’t we invade Iraq earlier?”
Think about that when you see “evidence” of a connection between Osama and Saddam. The administration has the files of the Iraqi intelligence services in its possession. It has interrogated countless high officials of the Iraqi regime. It has interrogated numerous high ranking members of Al Qaeda. If it had a bit of reliable evidence that Al Qaeda and Hussein were connected, it certainly wouldn’t leak a memo to the Weekly Standard. It would send a memo to the New York Times, CNN, ABC News, the BBC, and every other reputable and not-so-reputable news organization in the world.
But they haven’t. Instead, they leak shady, discredited information to a right wing hack at a right wing newspaper. They don’t even try to hide the fact that half of that evidence comes from someone who, we now know, has been giving classified info to Iran.
I guess it all works out as long as the wingnuts believe it.