Motivation for terrorism, or, John McCain is either a fool or willfully obtuse

Circular logic.

In public comments on Sunday, Republican Congressional leaders did not dispute the accuracy of the reports about the intelligence estimate, although they continued to defend the American presence in Iraq.

”I think it’s obvious that the difficulties we’ve experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened” terrorist groups, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

“But I would also argue that these people didn’t need any motivation to attack us on Sept. 11,” he said.

Six years after Sept. 11, and John McCain still doesn't understand that the attacks of that day were not motivated as ends in and of themselves, or as a singular act of revenge motivated by whatever? The scaling up of attacks -- the USS Cole, the African embassies, and finally, the World Trade Center and Pentagon -- were intended to motivate us into an overwhelming over-reaction that would then serve as a recruitment drive for terrorism. And it worked. We used the Sept. 11 attacks as a specious excuse to attack and occupy Iraq.

Now, new found recruits have all the motivation they will ever need. And John McCain, in his statements Sunday, doesn't deny that. He just waves the bloody flag of Sept. 11.

"Straight Talk Express," indeed.