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Bush
manipulates emotions
In yet another attempt to win the American
peoples’ support in waging war against Iraq,
President Bush tried to tie the Sept. 11
tragedy and the al Qaida network to Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein in his speech Monday.
Bush’s speech just happened to fall on the
exact one-year anniversary of the launching
of the military attack on Afghanistan’s
Taliban in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Bush argued that some members of al Qaida
have fled Afghanistan and sought refuge
and even medical attention in Iraq and,
that members of al Qaida and Hussein maintain
longstanding high-level contacts and together
share America as their enemy.
Bush also claimed that U.S. security is
greatly threatened by the possibility of
Hussein turning his weapons over to terrorists
like those in al Qaida who also wish destruction
upon the United States.
Bush even went as far as saying that going
to war against Iraq “is crucial to winning
the war against terror.” And that “Iraq
has trained al Qaida members in bomb-making,
poisons and deadly gases.”
If, or more likely, when Bush finally decides
to wage this “preemptive war,” he will need
the American peoples’ support. However,
for him to elicit that needed support by
creating a link between Hussein and al Qaida,
when a link may not truly exist, is a manipulation
of the American peoples’ emotions. It is
obvious that he is using the Sept. 11 tragedy
to gain support.
The fact is that the sources, from which
Bush and the senior administration officials
get this information, regarding al Qaida’s
connection to Hussein, are unnamed and not
proclaimed as the most reliable sources.
Not only that, thus far Bush has failed
to give any conclusive evidence that a link
between al Qaida and Hussein exists at all.
Without proof, he should not be making such
a connection.
Although it is indisputable that both Hussein
and al Qaida share in their hatred toward
America, the question that they are even
remotely linked in their actions against
America is debatable.
Bush is using and counting on the fact that
many Americans already link the al Qaida
network and Hussein in their minds because
both are considered enemies of the United
States, and because they are both based
in the same general area, the Middle East.
But to extend the connection by saying that
waging war against Iraq is crucial to winning
the war against terror is just plain false.
In actuality, America needs the support
of other countries to win the war against
terror. However, almost all of the other
countries who support us in that “war,”
do not support us in the war against Iraq.
Waging war against Iraq is more likely to
cause us to lose support in the fight against
terror.
The war on terrorism itself has been greatly
blown out of proportion, from the commercials
linking drug use to the support of terrorism,
to all the security measures that have been
employed to “protect national security.”
Our nation has become immersed in the so-called
war on terror. And now, in the impending
war against Iraq, Bush continues to manipulate
peoples’ emotions and use the popularity
of the war on terror to gain the support
that he may not otherwise have.
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