Konnections

So, this tape surfaces that is apparently Osama bin Laden speaking on the Iraq-U.S. showdown, and Colin Powell uses it to try to prove a connection between al-Qaeda and Sadam Hussein.

Powell told a Senate committee he'd read a transcript of a recording of Osama bin Laden, or someone believed to be the al-Qaeda leader, "Where he once again speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle, and how he is in partnership with Iraq."

But from the transcript of the tape, bin Laden expresses his solidarity with the people of Iraq, and actually calls Sadam Hussein a few nasty names. That's funny, because George Bush has said exactly the same thing: he supports the Iraqi people and despises Sadam's regime. So does that prove a connection between Bush and bin Laden? It would seem so.

But to further prove the al-Qaeda-Sadam partnership, Powell asserts that al-Qaeda operatives have found sanctuary in northeastern Iraq. In Iraq itself! Of course, that's the area controlled by Iraqi Kurds. So that would seem to prove a connection between the Kurds and al-Qaeda terrorist cells.

But wait! The Kurds are the people the American and British air forces have been protecting for ten years nowóprotecting from Sadam.

I've seen clearer lines of reasoning in a high school debating society.