IRAQ = 9/11, SAYS FLEISCHER'S PROPAGANDA OUTFIT

You know from various news stories (and from my previous post) that a pro-Bush group called Freedom's Watch, with Ari Fleischer as one of its board members, is embarking on a $15 million media campaign to promote the Iraq War.

Well, the first four ads are up, and you can watch them here or here.

And, well, what do you know -- three of the four ads tie 9/11 to the Iraq War.

Here's the text of the first one, delivered by John Kriesel, who lost both legs in Iraq last year:

Congress was right to vote to fight terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. I reenlisted after 9/11 because I don't want my sons to see what I saw. I want them to be free and safe. I know what I lost. I also know that if we pull out now, everything I've given and sacrificed will mean nothing. They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq. We're winning on the ground and making real progress. It's no time to quit. It's no time for politics.

Emphasis mine. Needless to say, a photo of a plane going into the Twin Towers appears on the screen when the emphasized words are spoken.

It's clear that the Democrats are knuckling under in the face of the GOP propaganda effort, and that they almost certainly won't stop the war during Bush's term in office. But could they talk about how outrageous it is that the administration and its allies continue to link the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War this way?

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UPDATE: Of course, the fish stinks from the head. Here's Bush speaking to the VFW today:

I stand before you as a wartime President. I wish I didn't have to say that, but an enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, declared war on the United States of America. And war is what we're engaged in.

Wow, that is a seamless rhetorical transition from 9/11/01 to Iraq right now, isn't it? His writers are damn good at this crap.