It’s ‘Convenient’ To Keep U.S. Troops In Iraq

Quote of the Week:

One of the things, though, that I think the antiwar crowd has not considered is that, if we’re putting the Americans right within their arms’ reach, they don’t have to come to Wall Street to kill Americans. They don’t have to knock down the trade center. They can do it around the corner, and convenience is a big factor when you’re a terrorist.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/08/morris-iraq

Morris: It’s ‘Convenient’ To Keep U.S. Troops In Iraq So Terrorists Can Kill Them ‘Around The Corner’

President Bush has repeatedly argued that the United States needs to “eliminate terrorist threats abroad, so we do not have to face them here at home.”

Last night on Hannity and Colmes, right-wing pundit Dick Morris also claimed that we need to keep U.S. troops in Iraq so that terrorists don’t come to the United States. But he argued that we need to put “Americans right within their [terrorists’] arms’ reach” so that they have the opportunity to “kill Americans” there. He added that therefore, “they don’t have to come to Wall Street to kill Americans. They don’t have to knock down the Trade Center. They can do it around the corner, and convenience is a big factor when you’re a terrorist.”

Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq doesn’t mean that violence will follow them to the United States. As former White House counterterrorism director Richard Clarke notes:

Of course, nothing about our being “over there” in any way prevents terrorists from coming here. Quite the opposite, the evidence is overwhelming that our presence provides motivation for people throughout the Arab world to become anti-American terrorists.

A recent survey of military and diplomatic experts also concluded that “likelihood that enemy combatants from Iraq might follow departing U.S. forces back to the United States is remote at best.” But as the Army recently warned, the longer we stay in Iraq, the more casualties will rise.
Posted by Amanda May 8, 2007