Mythbusters (2 Cents Style): It's Our Fault

This one is just stupid, and shows a complete (or willful) ignorance of the enemy we face. Let's look at a few specific variations of this sentiment.

We're provoking Al Qaeda by being in Iraq.
Had we invaded Iraq before 9/11/2001? No, but Al Qaeda killed 3,000 Americans anyway.

We're creating more terrorists by being in Iraq.
Seriously? If you think this, then you apparently don't remember the Khobar Towers bombing, the USS Cole bombing, the various U.S. Embassy bombings all around the world, or the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 (just to name a few). There have been terrorists attacking the U.S. and other western nations for decades. If anything is accelerating terrorist recruitment right now, it's the liberal leftists and America-haters who defend terrorist activities by granting them the rights of U.S. citizens and seeking to actively prevent U.S. victory in Iraq by leaking national security secrets (like the freezing of Al Qaeda assets and eavesdropping on known terrorists) and seeking legislation that hinders American success on the battlefield.

Al Qaeda wasn't in Iraq when we invaded.
Baloney. Former Iraqi military officers and defectors have revealed that not only did Saddam Hussein's government support terrorism, but he even let them use Iraqi training facilities. One, named Salman Pak, had a Boeing 707 fusilage where they practiced taking over airplanes. Check out the satellite photos for yourself here, here, and here (it's a progression that zooms in).

There's no link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
There's no conclusive link between Saddam Hussein and the specific 9/11 attacks. But, there is a mountain of evidence proving the link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda in general. If the Salman Pak facility isn't enough for you, there is a vast amount of evidence dispelling this rumor, including meetings between the two, funding support, and training assistance. The Weekly Standard compiled a document titled 'The Mother of All Connections' which sheds a great deal of light on this ridiculous notion. In it are details on one particular detainee's journey from Iraqi army member to Taliban member to Al Qaeda member to attempted embassy bombings (in 1998) to arrest in Pakistan. This happened at the same time as President Clinton publicly accused Iraq of supplying Al Qaeda, and at the same time as two U.S. embassy attacks in Africa. Also included are descriptions of authenticated documents from Saddam's own Iraqi Intelligence Service stating bin Laden was an intelligence asset, and describing how a bin Laden aide stayed in a Baghdad hotel as a guest of the IIS. Hussein also welcomed Al Qaeda members "with open arms" before the war in Iraq began, controlling their activities to set up a resistance to our invasion. There are pages and pages of details in this document, but I'll let you read them yourself. CNSNews reported in 2004 that Iraqi intelligence documents showed numerous efforts by Hussein to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders. Rush Limbaugh did his own two-page insert on such links in his July 2004 issue of the Limbaugh Letter, including statements from the 9/11 Commission, Janet Reno, Colin Powell, George Tenet, and newspapers from around the world. Check it out here and here.

These are just a few examples of the vast documentation that links Al Qaeda and Iraq. This is one of the most firmly fixed -- yet easily disproved -- myths surrounding this war.

There's my two cents.