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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Posted by Medium Lobster
The 9/11 commission has ruled that there is "no credible evidence" of an Iraq connection to the 9/11 attacks, mere days after Vice President Dick Cheney once again asserted that Saddam Hussein did indeed directly support al Qaeda. The Medium Lobster finds it interesting - but all-too-typical - that what has been siezed upon by the liberal media has been this particular finding of the commission, and not the fact that al Qaeda did indeed seek out assistance from Iraq, which was considered by Hussein even though he gave bin Laden no response. Furthermore, the Medium Lobster would remind the anti-war Left that while there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Hussein actually accepted bin Laden's offer, there is likewise no evidence to suggest that he did not, at some later point, accept it.

Remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and with the stakes being what they are, we cannot wait for a "smoking gun" - for that smoking gun may come in the form of a rusted, disused cannister of mustard gas on a Manhattan subway, or three barrels of pesticide mistaken by weapons inspectors for Sarin on the steps of the Capitol. Remember that 9/11, after all, changed everything - even elementary rules of logic - and we cannot pursue the real threats of today before we've finished eliminating the more deadly potentially-shadowy threats of tomorrow.

Oh, there was an al Qaeda connection, my friends. It was an al Qaeda connection of the heart, and in lusting after international terrorism, Saddam Hussein committed that partnership on a dangerously conceptual level - one that could not be ignored on this very material, tank-and-bomb-filled reality.

The good news is that this menace is defeated. The bad news is that, as David Frum and Richard Perle have demonstrated, America has many shadow-enemies left to conquer. The Medium Lobster would note that, while we lack evidence to prove it, France may have considered partnering with Saddam and bin Laden - and they are a nuclear threat. Be warned.