Juan Cole on Tony Snow’s defense of the President’s refusal to withdraw. Of course, the Fox/WhiteHouse Press Sec is revising again. He’s had lots of practice with FOX News. I can’t help but look at ANY story or line Fox news gives us and wonder what ANGLE/SPIN they’re after. Cole is all over Snow and Bush on this one, with some EVIDENCE and documentation that shows their SPIN for what it is……SPIN. Deceit.
Informed Comment

As for Snow\’s contention that for the US to get out of Iraq would be a defeat in the war on terror, it is exactly the opposite. The US occupation of Iraq is now reviving the terror movement among Muslim radicals. This is the conclusion of experts such as Fawaz Gerges and Steven Simon and Daniel Benjamin. The quicker we end the miltiary occupation, the sooner we will stop inadvertently training the next generation of terrorists who want to hit us.And, anyway, as the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demonstrates, there is no real need to worry about terrorism flourishing in western Iraq. The neighbors– Jordan, Syria and Turkey– would never put up with it, for fear it would spill over onto them. And as that operation showed, the Jordanians are better at tracking down Arab terrorists than the US military (yes, it soes help to know Arabic fluently).

Moreover, there is some danger of Bush\’s imperial over-stretch imperiling our republic. Our budget deficits, enormous indebtedness, the sinking dollar, and other effects of imperial overstretch and Republican Party irresponsibility could lead to a crisis of epochal proportions.