Reply #17: McCain on the NIE [View All]

[ProSense]

The Los Angeles Times reports that the White House, sensing the importance of the issue of Iraq during an election year, moved quickly to counter the impact of the NIE report. White House spokesman Peter Watkins said the Bush administration "sharply disagreed" with the findings of the 16 intelligence agencies, saying "anti-American fervor in the Muslim world began long before the Sept. 11 attacks."

"Their hatred for freedom and liberty did not develop overnight," Watkins said. "Those seeds were planted decades ago." He said the administration has sought in Iraq to root out hotbeds of terrorism before they grow. "Instead of waiting while they plot and plan attacks to kill innocent Americans, the United States has taken the initiative to fight back," Watkins said.

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney also have highlighted the war in Iraq as the main thrust in the fight against terrorism, contending that the world is safer overall without Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a likely presidential candidate in 2008, agreed with the White House view that radicalism predates the toppling of Saddam, and that fundamentalists are always looking for reasons to recruit new jihadists.

Snip...

But The New York Times reports that some Democratic and Republican politicians felt the report was another indication of an already bad situation in Iraq. Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said it showed that the Bush administration policy in Iraq was acting as a "recruiting poster" for terrorists. Republican Sen. Arlen Spectre of Pennsylvania said on CNN that "the war in Iraq has intensified Islamic fundamentalism and radicalism," although he added "that's a problem that nobody seems to have an answer to."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0925/dailyUpdate.html

Why doesn't he just respond: "What Bush said"?