Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is out parading around in the media testing a new war justification so pathetic it'll bring tears to your eyes. The Bush administration has finally gone and done it now; they've pulled the 9-11 card.

Now that it's becoming clearer by the day that pre-war intelligence was faulty, perhaps even intentionally so, and that the justifications given prior to war for starting it were bogus, the administration is making a great sweeping appeal to emotion, asserting that "because 9-11 therefore pre-emptive war".

The reasoning works like this. Maybe if we'd made a "pre-emptive strike" against Afghanistan in 1999, even though we had no reason to at the time, we could have prevented the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Therefore, it was perfectly reasonable to attack Iraq without proper justification this year, because of what they might have done in the future.

Well hell, in that case, let's launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran, Saudi Arabia (where most of the terrorists actually came from), Pakistan, India, North Korea, Egypt and Wales. You never know what those wiley Welsh could do next. Better to put them out of the way now while you can!

Wolfowitz told the press, "It surprises me sometimes that people have forgotten so soon what Sept. 11, I think, should have taught us about terrorism. And that's what this is all about."

I thought it was all about doing the hokey pokey and turning oneself around, but I'll let that one slide, Paul.

I don't believe for a second that people have forgotten about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, though clearly Paul here wants to make a subtle implication: if you don't believe I'm right about the war on Iraq, it means you've forgotten about September 11 (and therefore must be stupid or cold and heartless or all of the above) or you don't care about terrorism.

But don't forget: this was not a war over terrorism. This was a "pre-emptive strike" on a nation because our "intelligence" showed that they had, and intended to use "weapons of mass destruction." There's never been any evidence connecting Iraq with al-Qaeda that wasn't later discredited. Terrorism had nothing to do with how this war was sold to Congress and the American people. September 11 had nothing to do with it and still has nothing to do with it, despite the best efforts of Wolfowitz.

Nice try, guys. Now that you've played your 9-11 card, what's left in your hand?

---Nick

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