MiamiHerald.com | 09/01/2006 | Iraq war's ties to Sept. 11 have unraveled

MiamiHerald.com | 09/01/2006 | Iraq war's ties to Sept. 11 have unraveled

...Indeed, there was an interesting exchange between Bush and a reporter at a news conference last week. In the process of answering a question about Iraq, Bush reflexively invoked Sept. 11, leading the reporter to interrupt him.

''What did Iraq have to do with that?'' the reporter asked.

''Nothing,'' Bush said irritably. ...

For the record: On Sept. 11, 2001, we were attacked by men directed from a terrorist base in Afghanistan. We quickly knocked over Afghanistan and just as quickly forgot about it, turning instead to the troublesome dictatorship the president just knew in his gut was behind the carnage. Now we find ourselves mired in a poorly defined, poorly designed mission in a nation which, with all due respect to the presidential gut, had no known connection to Sept. 11.