Logic Check

In tonight's news

The White House initially would not give details of the 10 plots that Bush mentioned in his morning speech before the National Endowment for Democracy, saying some information remained classified. But in the evening, the White House released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.

Three targets cited were in the United States, including plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House said at least one planner of the West Coast attack was a key figure behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

So, let me see if I can get this straight. The President is so desperate to scare us into supporting the war in Iraq, that he's even willing to admit that the whole "fight 'em over there so we don't have to fight 'em here" thing really is completely absurd, since we're fighting 'em over here anyway?

The article also says

Pentagon officials released a letter Thursday evening they said was written from one terrorist leader to another that they said confirmed administration assertions that Iraqi insurgents have a detailed plan to force U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and create an Islamic state there.

So, the Pentagon has now released a letter saying that the insurgents are, in fact, insurgents?

Pentagon spokesman Bryan

Whitman said the letter demonstrates "that there is this detailed planning and intent on the part of the insurgents in Iraq to one day control that country and to really try to extend their extremism to neighboring countries. It demonstrates to me they clearly understand the importance and significance of the battle in Iraq right now."

In the letter al-Zawahri urges Zarqawi — who has declared war on Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority — to avoid bombing mosques and slaughtering hostages to avoid alienating the masses, Whitman said. He also said that al-Zawahri asked Zarqawi for some financial support.

So, al Qaeda, which didn't have any plans for Iraq before we went in and upset the applecart, now intends to use it for a regional base. And al-Zawahri, at the 'home office', is now asking Zarqawi, the guy in Iraq, for financial support??

Explain to me again how the war in Iraq is making al Qaeda weaker?

And what are we to assume from the fact that the administration is so rattled that it is actually trying to bolster its positions with evidence that undermines its positions. Did they really think the "make them really scared" tactic was going to work again, and we wouldn't notice?

I guess Karl's really been preoccupied trying to figure out which story he was going to try on Fitzgerald.