Ezra Klein: George and Osama, Sitting In A tree

April 19, 2007

George and Osama, Sitting In A tree

I'm surprised to see Rove admit this:

In a question-and-answer period after his speech, Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.

“I think it was Osama bin Laden’s,” Rove replied

You see, I too have long thought the war in Iraq was Osama bin-Laden's idea. What better way to unite the world against us? What better way to divert attention from the hunt for al-Qaeda? What better way to overstretch our military and reduce our flexibility? What better way to divide our society and embitter our politics? What better way to exhaust our treasury and degrade our capacity for international leadership? But whenever I have thought this way, I've assumed that there's no way George W. Bush is letting Osama bin Laden advise him on foreign policy.

Turns out I was wrong.

April 19, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

Prior to the war, TomPaine was running a mock ad of OBL dressed as uncle sam saying "I want you....to invade Iraq".

Posted by: ken | Apr 19, 2007 3:23:57 PM

Bin Laden's most central reason to hope we'd invade Iraq may have been to provide a new unifying provocation for Muslims to join him in his fight against the West. Rove no doubt means to blame bin Laden for the whole war on terror, which is and always has been a pretty lame excuse to invade Iraq.

Posted by: Sanpete | Apr 19, 2007 3:24:06 PM

Don't you remember crazy ol' Richard Clarke, who argued that bin Laden was using some sort of mind control ray to beam thoughts of invading Iraq directly into Bush's cranium?

Posted by: Blar | Apr 19, 2007 4:08:32 PM

Right answer (for 2003), wrong question.

Posted by: benny | Apr 19, 2007 5:36:08 PM

with all due respect, at the time between 9/11 and the start of the Iraq war there really were a few commentators (I know...no one of influence) that American over-reaction was what bin Laden wanted. That Bush, Rove, Cheney and the other morons were so willing no anxious to oblige can only be explained by their desireto cement thepolitical gains of 2002 and make the tax cuts (their raison d'etre) permanent.

Posted by: della Rovere | Apr 19, 2007 6:34:33 PM

Binny hated Saddam too, just another bonus for him and the loser president . . .

Posted by: Tony | Apr 19, 2007 6:54:26 PM

della Rovere: "at the time between 9/11 and the start of the Iraq war there really were a few commentators (I know...no one of influence) that American over-reaction was what bin Laden wanted."

FWIW, I was saying that right around, oh, September 2001.

It's true, though, that the war in Iraq did achieve one of bin Laden's strategic objectives: it got the US out of Saudi Arabia.

Posted by: Grumpy | Apr 19, 2007 7:19:36 PM

Very interesting -- I guess it's not really Cheney or Rove who have been pulling W's strings all this time. maybe we should talk directly to bin Laden about health care and the economy -- cut out the imbecilic middle men.

Posted by: Donna | Apr 19, 2007 7:41:07 PM

Yeah, y'all just think this was sarcasm, but Rove is laughing because he can tell the truth and no one believes it, and the next day tell the boldest lie and have ten pundits validating it at dinner.

And where did Poppy stay when he visited S.A.? And who were rapidly spirited out of the country, despite all protocols? Gotta see the forest and connect the dots.

Rove is really slick. Now no one will ever believe the truth. Or...Rove just said it. It was Ezra Klein made it into a joke. Hmmmm...

Posted by: bob mcmanus | Apr 19, 2007 8:24:59 PM

With oil prices at $60 and production costs rising, oh let me check the oil drum, hell, fake it, from 5 dollars to ten dollars a barrel how much money has SA made off the Iraq War?

Yet we get page after page about AIPAC.

Posted by: bob mcmanus | Apr 19, 2007 8:36:23 PM

I think you are missing the forest for the trees. All this time we've been taking for granted that WMD's were a pretense for war, without admission by the administration. This statement seems like an indirect admission, though i suppose it could be twisted to be the opposite.

Posted by: B.S. | Apr 19, 2007 9:27:47 PM

george bush is a gift to obl. his best ally.

Posted by: merlallen | Apr 20, 2007 9:29:42 AM

Osama bin Laden's number one publically stated goal from even before 9/11 was to get US troops out of the Holy Places, i.e. Saudi Arabia.

Iraq could have been a huge success and bin Laden still would have won, because the proximate result of this war has been the near total removal of US troops from Saudi Arabia.

It's mind-boggling really. Osama wanted us out of one country and into another and at huges costs in blood and money we obliged him.

Posted by: Bruce Webb | Apr 20, 2007 12:30:07 PM

Just to note one rather interesting point: what Rove is actually doing here is blaming the war on bin Laden, rather like saying that it was Japan's fault they got nuked.

The question that I have is, did he have any clue of how it actually reads, is he being breathtakingly contemptuous of his audience, is he totally clueless, or his his subconscious having the time of his life?

Posted by: James Killus | Apr 20, 2007 8:23:33 PM

I hate to break the news to you, folks, but the reporter misread his notes and the Akron Beacon Journal has now corrected the story.

The question was who's idea it was to start a pre-emptive war. Presumably the questioner was referring to the Iraq war (which is why the reporter's notes included the word "Iraq"), but Rove was not. So Rove was not telling the truth about Iraq; he was lying about bin Laden.

Posted by: Kenneth Almquist | Apr 21, 2007 1:02:13 AM

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