Something in Al Gore's speech that bothered me...

[pss]

...and it was just a throwaway line, a simple notion that keeps getting repeated. He said:

"Wouldn't we be safer with a President who didn't insist on confusing al Qaeda with Iraq? Doesn't that divert too much of our attention away from the principal danger?"

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/26/dems.gore.transcript/index.html

I don't believe for a second that Bush or anyone else was confused. They knew perfectly well what they were doing. This notion is a sister to the idea that "they hate us for our freedoms." Both ideas are bullshit. Bin Laden's stated purpose was to draw the US into a large land war in a Muslim country. The success of the Mujahadeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan proved that they could bring a superpower to its knees. His beef with the US had nothing to do with our "freedoms," but rather with the fact that we are propping up the corrupt House of Saud, and that an infidel army was sitting in Saudi Arabia.

Bush cooperated with bin Laden by starting a large land war in a Muslim nation. People think that it's bullshit when he says that he "brought the fight to the terrorists" but the reality is that it's true. Nobody knows how many "evil-doers" we are killing there. (along with all the "collateral damage") This was the plan all along. Read this if you haven't already:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

Followed by this:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf

There was no confusion. The Neocons knew damn well that George W with his "Saddam tried to kill my Daddy" line would make the perfect excuse, and that the idea that he doesn't know the difference between al Qaeda and Iraq would be the perfect cover.

I think it would be more powerful, useful and honest if Bush's opponents would stop using the "confused" line and tell it like it is. OK, so maybe the truth is much scarier than the bullshit. Many people won't believe it even though it's right there in their faces.

It was only a throwaway line. But it had nothing to do with reality. We need to stop enabling the bullshit, no matter how painful it is!

BTW - Bill Clinton totally rocks! There was something noticeable in the Fleet Center through my TV speakers when he was on stage. The sounds from the audience sounded like a rock concert, as compared to all the other speakers on stage! The Big Dog is still a Rock Star!

[nickinSTL]

1. Carter

Yeah, but Carter got it right.

He said that the Bushies were planning the Iraq war before Bush even took office.

[primavera]

10. God bless him

Yep, once again, Jimmy nailed it. Now Carter's speech was the one from the evening that most impresed me, it just about brought tears to my eyes. That man has more integrity in his little finger than most of us have in our entire bodies. I am so ashamed of the discraceful way we let that great man, whose boots we are scarcely worthy to lick, go down in history. Carter by rights should be to Dems what Reagan is to Repukes: a hero to be celebrated. I'm glad to see the world at least, if not his own country, recognizes his greatness.

[emulatorloo]

2. "insist on confusing" = willfulling telling us that Saddam was involved

in 9/11.

Gore is not saying that george w bush was confused.

Gore is saying that GWB willfully tried to confuse Saddam and al Qaeda in the minds of the American people in order to sell this war.

[Lavender Brown]

3. That's how I understood this as well.

[w4rma]

4. Yup. BushCo *tries* to confuse people into getting the two mixed up.

This is actually a very important point, imho. Not a throwaway line at all.

[Laughing Mirror]

5. Gore says Bush "insists" on confusing the two

Meaning he does so deliberately.

[no name no slogan]

6. I thought it was more of a joke about Shrub

...not that W unintentionally confused the two, of course. I think he meant it as a dig against Bush, who is too busy blaming the CIA and "bad intelligence" instead of admitting that Iraq was planned out before 9/11.

[PeaceForever]

7. Bush himself probably had no idea.

Bush is pretty dumb. As he himself admitted, he doesn't read the news. Instead he just relies on his advisors. So I think he most like really did think that Saddam was involved with Al Qaeda.

Check out freerepublic.com. Those people are convinced that Iraq had ties with Al Qaeda, and when prompted, they'll post lots of "evidence" for such.

Also, listen to Sean Hannity or Neal Boortz sometime. Both of them are geneuinely convinced that Iraq helped Al Qaeda.

[mzmolly]

8. Gore knows he's not *confused* he was being polite yet humorous

whilst pointing out that Bush was full of crap.

[janx]

9. It was a rhetorical question.

Gore knows the difference very well, and said that Bush "insists" on confusing Al Qaeda with Iraq--in other words, Bush was not confused at all.

[MISSDem]

11. Gore meant that Bush MEANS to confuse the people.

And I read that polls show that something like 80% of the American people think that Iraq had something to do with September 11, 2001, STILL.