Maureen Dowd’s column in Sunday’s NY Times is about Bush’s arguing that we must stay in Iraq because of Al Queda. But Bush is lying to us and his lies start with Al Queda. Back in 2002, Bush told us this about Osama bin Laden:

We haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.

The man who is the leader of the organization that organized the worst attack on American soil isn’t someone that Bush is concerned about. And today, nearly six years after the attack, he still is alive and free. But Bush tells us that we invaded Iraq because of Al Queda. At the Coast Guard Academy graduation, Bush said:

Nine-eleven taught us that to protect the American people we must fight the terrorists where they live so they don’t have to fight them where we live.

So why did we invade Iraq? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Al Queda had no bases in Iraq. They were and still are in Afghanistan. Is Al Queda in Iraq today? To some extent they are, but Iraq is a secular nation and once we are gone and their civil war is over, Al Queda will not be welcome there. The people of Iraq ultimately want peace but in order to get peace their civil war must come to an end. We need to also keep in mind that Al Queda isn’t a tightly controlled organization and isn’t suing people for using their name. Many of the groups fighting us in Iraq call themselves Al Queda because they know that name is scary to us.

So on this Memorial Day, let us keep in mind that when we ask our soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice, that it is important that we have clear goals and objectives and that those goals are worth the lives of our soldiers. Let us be able to say that those who died gave their lives for the betterment of our nation and the world.