Terrorists 'Pouring In' To Failed Iraq

9/20/2004

Terrorists 'Pouring In' To Failed Iraq

September 20, 2004

President Bush promised the American people that his war in Iraq would make us safer and reduce terrorism. Yet today, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi announced that "terrorists are coming and pouring in from various countries into Iraq to try and undermine the situation in Iraq." The Prime Minister’s dire warning comes on the heels of three senior GOP senators – Senators John McCain, Richard Lugar, and Chuck Hagel – lambasting the Bush administration’s incompetence on security and reconstruction in Iraq.

  • President Bush’s war in Iraq has allowed al Qaeda to strengthen and multiply. The war in Iraq has created the exact conditions it was supposed to eliminate – thousands of new terrorists killing our troops and destabilizing the region. As former British foreign secretary Robin Cook writes in The Times newspaper, "There were no international terrorists in Iraq until we went in. It was we who gave the perfect conditions in which al Qaeda could thrive."

  • The administration’s complete incompetence on post-war security has turned Iraq into a quagmire. The facts about Iraq are impossible to ignore. As Senator John McCain stated yesterday on Fox News Sunday, "We made serious mistakes right after the initial successes by not having enough troops there on the ground, by allowing looting, by not securing the borders." Or as Senator Chuck Hagel put it on Face the Nation, "The fact is we’re in trouble. We’re in deep trouble in Iraq."

  • President Bush’s unwillingness to acknowledge obvious failures in Iraq puts all Americans at risk. President Bush clearly cares more about his reelection prospects than the safety of Americans. With Iraq growing more unstable by the day, his phony message of "progress" is a danger to our troops and an insult to the American people. It’s time for the president to accept responsibility for failures and make necessary corrections in Iraq.

Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund.

Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund.