Iraq 9/11 and Sarah Palin

While Alaska endures a Constitutional Crisis, Governor Sarah Palin is working with a “suspended campaign”. Our Governor spent today in New York. She was asked about her support of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who now finds himself in a Washington DC federal courtroom defending a seven count indictment. She blew off the question saying, “Ted Steven’s trial started a couple days ago…we’ll see where that goes.” I wasn’t surprised she squirmed out of that question. She has been cozy with Stevens when it has served her political agenda, even headed up his 527 organization. With her new public persona of being a “Good Ole Boy” crusher, she is in a quandary.

 

She was asked another question and Americans ought to pay attention to her answer. Palin was asked if she thought the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan was helping to mitigate terrorism. “I think our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan will lead to further security of our nation. Again, because the mission is to keep the fight over there. Do not let them come over here and attempt again what they accomplished here and that was some destruction. Terrible destruction. On that day. But, since September 11^th, Americans uniting and rebuilding and committing to never let that happen again.”

 

 

Why would Sarah Palin link the current occupations to September 11th? Does she not know? Even George W. Bush has stated Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attacks on that day. The hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, and The United Arab Emirates.

 

It was neither Iraqi nor Afghani Citizens who crashed into our soil, our buildings, and our history. She should know this. Do you think it was a slip?

 

 

At her son’s Fort Wainwright deployment ceremony, the Governor also linked the Iraq war to the attacks of September 11, 2001. She told the Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans.” She continued, “America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before September 11, 2001.” One could argue that ‘the false sense of security’ is repeating the Neocon idea that killing people in a different country makes you safer. One could also argue that breaking the backbone of the Constitution in exchange for “security” is a false sense of patriotism.

 

 

Palin highlighted her “trip of a lifetime” to Iraq in the Charlie Gibson interview to exhibit her foreign knowledge and experience. Maybe if she would have actually gone to Iraq, and not the border crossing on the Kuwait side, she could have discovered these facts. The chest pounding, not blinking, gut checking, fact ignoring policy results in a lack of “exit strategies” for the devastating wars, the economic crisis and the emerging environmental catastrophe.

 

For her to reference a link between 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is either deliberately disingenuous or completely and unabashedly ignorant. America has endured eight years of the Bush Administration who have intentionally and continually misled the American people to believe this relationship exists. It has cost us dearly; some more than others.

 

 

Sarah Palin may not know what the Bush Doctrine is, but she sure understands the Bush Philosophy.