However, many of us have been saying all along that Iraq was not the hub of terrorism of the al-Qaeda variety

I dont think anyone has said Iraq was a hub. IN point of fact, due to its nature, there is no hub. But no one can deny that Iraq was one of the biggest sponsors of Terrorism. That is all that Bush has claimed.

I dont think anyone has said Iraq was a hub. IN point of fact, due to its nature, there is no hub. But no one can deny that Iraq was one of the biggest sponsors of Terrorism. That is all that Bush has claimed.

Ever wonder why people continue to say that we went into Iraq due to 9/11 links?

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. On that fateful day my thoughts were only about my neice who was to take up a job as an architect in a firm headquartered in the WTC building. As we live far away we could only think of her safetty on that day until her husband sent an e-mail saying that she was safe. I am writing all this to make tha larger point that the attack on the Towers was felt all over the world in a very personal way. On this day, I stand in silence in honor of all those who died on that day all 3,293 men, women and children. I wish that such an attack does not take place ver again.

I'm glad your niece is OK, I however do not believe that these events affected you as much as most here in the USA. Your only concern was your niece and since she was OK, you had nothing else to worry or care about. This is what I get from what you write.

Why is the memory of the 9/11 attack so important. First, there is no daubt that it marks a major point of departure in the cultural and political memoryscape of the USA. One might even say that USA lost its own innocence on that fateful day. This was followed by an overhauling of the entire doctrine of American defence. From now on, the preemptive strike or presumptive defence will be the standard line of American foreign policy. It is very unlikely that, given what happened in New York on September 11, 2001, USA will ever again wait to be attacked. It will certainly launch a preemptive strike and it is on this score that there are some questions.

So you think we should just watch and if we find out that something will happen, we should just let it happen first (reguardless of the results) so that then we have an excuse to do something about it? We should just let everyone take a shot at us first rather than prevent the attack? I guess it's kinda like the police then, where we don't call them till something happens cause they won't do nothing till something happens. Great idea there.

One of the most important facts to emerge from the 9/11 Commission and more recently from the Senate investigation is the dismal state of US intelligence agencies. Of course even with the best and the brightest in the CIA and NSA it will not be possible to prevent a major attack. However what is so strange is the ease with which US determination to rid the world of Al Qaeda was diverted to a phony war in Iraq. After the US has been bogged down in an abyss of senseless violence in Iraq, it has finally dawned on the political leadership that Iraq was not a safe haven for Al Qaeda as was made out to be in the run up to the war. Now Iraq has become the poster figure for jehadis all over the world.

Last I checked it was a war on terror not a war on Al-qaeda.

Hind sight is always 20/20. However, many of us have been saying all along that Iraq was not the hub of terrorism of the al-Qaeda variety and Bush made a great mistake in attackinmg the country. Now there is no escape route and Al-Qaeda has become far stronger.

I'm not too sure I se Al-qaeda stronger. Simply because many others decided to act upon feelings they've always had does not make Al-qaeda stronger, sounds more like desparate. Sounds like they could not handle things as they were and so needed to bring out more fighters. Still even with all they try, they have accomplished very little in their goal to rid the world of the US. We may have underestimated the results of taking out Saddam, but they also underestimated the persistance of the US and it's people. You may think Al-qaeda is stronger, I think the American people have become stronger as well and our determination to survive will over power the determination to destroy that terrorist live by, cause while we do our best to survive anything they can trow at us, they do their best to throw themselves at us and not survive in the process, making it easier for us to rid this world of this garbage.