Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an 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 death of thousands of Americans."
The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.
"America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before September 11, 2001," she said at the deployment ceremony, which drew hundreds of military families who walked from their homes on the sprawling post to the airstrip where the service was held.
Now perhaps she's saying that Saddam had something to do with it, but perhaps she's not. This writer at the Washington Post might not appreciate that in the mind of the right-wing American, Saddam, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, are all the same thing. Whether they speak Arabic or Persian, live in the West Bank or Waziristan, are Muslim or secular, they're all part of the vast "clash of civilizations" between the West and Islam and it's unnecessary (and demonstrates weakness of will even) to make distinctions between them based on culture, political circumstances, motivation, capabilities, etc., etc. So troops being sent to Iraq are in fact marching off on a task from God to defend Western civilization from the great enemy the Muslim, and there's really no need to speak with any clarity of language about who they're actually fighting. It's all the same to them, and Palin obviously believes something similar, so she is clearly the perfect choice for the Republican Party.
UPDATE: And yes, she also made a comment about the necessity of going to war with Russia over Georgia if Georgia were a member of NATO. Which of course were Georgia a member of NATO and was attacked by Russia, NATO would probably would go to war to defend the country. What goes unsaid is that thanks to the unending commitment to Iraq that is espoused by McCain and Palin alike, we are really in very little position to prevent Russia from doing as it pleases with Georgia. But of course to those two and their neo-con base, bluster = tough and it really doesn't matter if the Kremlin can see right through it so long as American voters can't.
UPDATE II: Oh, and the fact that she also doesn't know the difference between the Bush doctrine as it's been repeatedly defined by the Bush administration and the Bush doctrine as it's actually been carried out is no disqualification either, as neither do most right-wingers.
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