10-12-06, 8:27 a.m.

'What I say to the American people when I am out there is, all you got to do is listen to what Osama bin Laden says.' -- Bush, 10/11/06



'Don't believe me,' Bush told Americans in his Rose Garden news conference Wednesday. 'Listen to the enemy, or listen to Mr. Zawahiri, the number two of al Qaeda, both of whom made it clear that Iraq is central in their plans.'

'I take the words of the enemy very seriously,' Bush said, 'and so should the American people.'

Bush is mezmerized with the words of the terrorists. That's why Bush is keeping our soldiers bogged down in Iraq. He's listening to bin-Laden instead of the American people, who are telling him that they don't believe or agree with his reasons for being in Iraq; whether he's using his 'terror war' as an excuse, or any other of his lies. Rasmussen's latest polling shows that just 31% of Americans say Bush is winning his 'war on terror'. Only 36% think America is 'safer' as a result of Bush's militarism.

Bush shifted his language today, referring to the Iraq occupation as only 'part of this 'war on terror'. He's lining up a new defense, claiming that it's the terrorists who've been pushing the idea that Iraq was the 'center'. Bin-Laden did say that, but only after Bush invaded. It's not like no one noticed that the president flying around the country, raising money for his republican enablers, using the line as his own. He's been listening to bin-Laden and he wants us to join him in his fear and obsession with the words of the thugs who orchestrated 9-11.

'You know, there's a debate in Washington, D.C. about how to wage this war, Bush said at a republican fundraiser Oct.3. 'They say that Iraq is a distraction in the war on terror. I strongly disagree,' Bush declared. 'I think Iraq is a central front in the war on terror, and we must defeat the enemy in Iraq if we want America to be secure.'

How long are the American people going to tolerate Bush sacrificing our soldiers in Iraq to deny bin-Laden an imagined plot of land he has no purchase or influence on without the freedom Bush has allowed him for the five years since he promised to apprehend him 'dead or alive?' It was Bush who first made Iraq the 'center' of his contrived 'war on terror'. Bush's deliberate diversion of our forces from Afghanistan allowed the flames of fear he had fanned from the 9-11 attacks to catch spark in Iraq, as he stood far behind our soldiers and called for 'terrorists' to attack them there.

Bin-Laden would love to keep our forces bogged down in Iraq instead of 'on the hunt' for the terrorist and his accomplices as Bush promised. The Bush strategy of placing 140,000 troops in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan is not lost on the thugs as they take refuge in the unattended mountains along the Pakistan/Afghan border. How could they have engineered a better diversion than Bush provided by listening to and following bin-Laden's whispered scheme?

Now we know why Bush is so intent on staying in Iraq. He's been listening to bin-Laden like he's Son of Sam's dog. Bush is listening to bin-Laden, and he wants Americans to listen to the terrorists, too. He seems as satisfied with the level of sacrifices our troops are suffering as bin-Laden must be. More killings of our soldiers in Iraq represents progress to Bush. He declared to reporters, and to the American people, that 'we're on the move' in Iraq. Bush seems more intent than ever on leaving our soldiers to continue the losing defense of the crumbled Maliki regime, just to portray his illusion of a 'kinetic' battle he's waging against 'enemies' that he's drawn there.

He wants us to be afraid. That's his platform for his republican's congressional campaign. Fear. 'If we were to leave early before the job is done in Iraq, the 'enemy will follow us,' Bush says. If you vote his republican enablers out of office, the 'enemies' will supposedly overtake us. We know this, Bush says, because he's been listening to what bin-Laden says . . . instead of listening to the American people.

-Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price

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