Democrats slam Bush Admin for not being 'honest' about Iraq war after spy agencies find policy creating terrorists
Democrats are slamming the Bush Administration for not being "honest" with the American public about the war in Iraq after Bush's own spy agencies find that the current policy is creating terrorists, RAW STORY has found.
"A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda," the Washington Post reported earlier today.
"It concludes that, rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document," wrote Karen DeYoung for the Post.
RAW STORY received statements today issued by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee Senator John Kerry, and Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which all took shots at the White House.
"Once again, the American people have learned that the Bush Administration has not been honest with them about the war in Iraq," said Senator Harry Reid. "Press reports say our nation's intelligence services have confirmed that President Bush's repeated missteps in Iraq and his stubborn refusal to change course have made America less safe."
Reid added that "[n]o election-year White House PR campaign can hide this truth." The Senate Minority Leader's statement included a list of "recent claims of progress in combating terrorism" by President Bush that "are at odds with today’s press reports of the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusions," which is reproduced below.
"The National Intelligence Estimate provides jarring confirmation that the disastrous policy in Iraq is a giant recruiting poster for terrorists and it is weakening our hand in the war on terror," said Senator John Kerry. "Terrorist organizations from Al Qaeda to Hezbollah are thrilled that we are bogged down in Iraq, even as the Administration misleads America with fear and sloganeering."
Kerry argues that "there is no way to regain lost ground in the war on terror without redeploying out of Iraq and making Iraqis stand up for Iraq," and again calls for the U.S. to "set a deadline to get out of Iraq and refocus on the real war on terror."
"Unfortunately this report is just confirmation that the Bush administration’s stay-the-course approach to the Iraq war has not just made the war more difficult and more deadly for our troops, but has also made the war on terror more dangerous for every American," said Congressman Rahm Emanuel.
"What makes matters worse is that the Bush administration has known since receiving this report more than four months ago that its claims that the war in Iraq was making the American people safer were not true," Emanuel continued. "The Iraq war has gone far afield from ‘mission accomplished.'" |
