london and iraq and september 11

It depressed me today to hear relatively educated people I know say stupid things following the terrorist attacks in London yesterday. One person said this happened because the Spanish proved that terrorism worked. It is true that the terrorist attacks in Spain last year were right before the election, by design. But it was the transparently false, fumbling attempts by the Aznar government to try to make people think the Basque terrorists had done it that really pissed off Spanish voters. If the Aznar government had played it straight with the Spanish electorate, they might have retained power.

Another person said the attack wouldn't have happened if the British weren't in Iraq. Well, not really. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorists have plenty of things to dislike about the British and other Western, democratic and (in their eyes) decadent anti-Islamic pro-Israel societies.

And several people again took the President's lead to imply somehow that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks of September 11. People, please believe me: Bin Laden and Al Qaeda hated Hussein's secular, Baath/socialist Iraqi regime for being insufficiently Islamist. Just like they hate pretty much EVERY Arab government. Just because two groups (the Baathist regime and Al Qaeda) are largely comprised of Arab Muslims does NOT mean (despite Dick Cheney's allegations) that they cooperate or share common goals. Don't believe the lies -- Iraq was not ABOUT September 11, the Bush administration used September 11 and WMD (remember them?) as the EXCUSE to invade.