Quote:
FARAH STOCKMAN; The Boston Globe
Published: March 20th, 2008 01:00 AM
WASHINGTON ?? On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, President Bush delivered a speech Wednesday at the Pentagon warning of ??serious consequences for the world??s economy? if the United States were to withdraw from Iraq and al-Qaida were to seize control of the country??s vast oil resources.
Later in the president??s speech, when addressing the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush talked not only of the Americans who lost their lives, but of the large number who lost their jobs.
??More than a million Americans lost work? following the attacks, he said.
Bush??s speech, which otherwise dwelled on the importance of military victory, was a quiet attempt to link al-Qaida to America??s economic woes, some analysts noted.
??I think he??s trying to make a case that the Iraq war is integral to resolving our economic difficulties, which he knows the public is weighing more heavily now than they have in the past five years,? said Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist with the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress.
Anti-war protesters also sought to link the war to the economy by blockading the offices of the Internal Revenue Service to draw attention to the high cost of the conflict.
Bush, in his speech, contended that estimates of the war??s costs have been overblown. But he also acknowledged that the ??battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated.?
He said security gains made by U.S. troops over the past year are ??fragile and reversible,? signaling that he is unlikely to order further troop reductions in Iraq beyond those already planned. He said the war, which has cost nearly 4,000 U.S. lives and roughly $500 billion in direct expenses, is poised to give the United States a major strategic victory against al-Qaida.
Bush did not distinguish between al-Qaida, the group started by Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaida in Iraq, the Sunni-based extremist group. A Pentagon-sponsored study of 600,000 Iraq documents, released last week, showed no link between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden.
Some of Bush??s strongest words were when he described what he said would be the consequences for pulling out of Iraq.
??An emboldened al-Qaida with access to Iraq??s oil resources could pursue its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations,? he said.
The argument that U.S. troops need to stay in Iraq to protect the country??s oil is not a new one. As far back as 2005, Bush warned that if bin Laden gained control of Iraq, his group would ??seize oil fields to fund their ambitions.?
But some specialists took issue Wednesday with the idea that al-Qaida in Iraq would get control of the country??s oil in the event of a U.S. withdrawal, because the oil is located in Shiite and Kurdish areas that are hostile to the group.
??The idea that al-Qaida is going to gain control over Iraq and export oil is a fairy tale, James Bond stuff,? said Ilan Goldenberg, policy director at the National Security Network, a liberal group of defense and foreign policy specialists.
Michael Makovsky, who served as special assistant on Iraqi oil in the office of the Secretary of Defense from 2002 to 2006, said criminal gangs and Shiite militias in southern Iraq pose a more significant threat to Iraqi oil exports than al-Qaida.
At the White House, Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush??s remarks were meant to highlight the economic effects of a setback in the war on terror.
??We know what the kind of impact that the 9/11 attack had on our country,? she said. ??Our stock markets went into a turmoil, and we had to take significant action in order to help right our economy.?
Vice President Dick Cheney said separately that it does not matter whether the public supports the U.S. presence in Iraq.
After a reporter cited polls showing that two-thirds of Americans oppose the Iraq war, Cheney responded: ??So??
??I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls,? he said while in Oman.
In an interview with ABC News, Cheney compared the Bush administration??s task in Iraq to Lincoln??s determination during the Civil War.
When asked whether he cares what Americans think of the war, Cheney answered ??no.?
