I wanted to peruse the full report from the 9/11 Commission to check out their final say on Iraq and how that compared to all of the rhetoric during the past year, while the Left did their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Fortunately, Jon from QandO (one of the best blogs out there) has already done his homework. What he's found in the 9/11 report should devastate the memes repeatedly pushed from the left.

For instance, did you know that Bush is the one who took Iraq off the table following 9/11 (page 335)?

President Bush told Bob Woodward that the decision not to invade Iraq was made at the morning session on September 15. Iraq was not even on the table during the September 15 afternoon session, which dealt solely with Afghanistan.69 Rice said that when President Bush called her on Sunday, September 16, he said the focus would be on Afghanistan, although he still wanted plans for Iraq should the country take some action or the administration eventually determine that it had been involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Or, did you know that Bush told the military to stand down on Iraq after 9/11, as he wanted to focus on Afghanistan (page 336)?

Franks told us that he was pushing independently to do more robust plan ning on military responses in Iraq during the summer before 9/11—a request President Bush denied, arguing that the time was not right. (CENTCOM also began dusting off plans for a full invasion of Iraq during this period, Franks said.) The CENTCOM commander told us he renewed his appeal for further military planning to respond to Iraqi moves shortly after 9/11, both because he personally felt that Iraq and al Qaeda might be engaged in some form of collusion and because he worried that Saddam might take advantage of the attacks to move against his internal enemies in the northern or southern parts of Iraq, where the United States was flying regular missions to enforce Iraqi no-fly zones. Franks said that President Bush again turned down the request.

Don't take my word for it -- Jon has links back to the specific citations from the report itself, and a bunch more revelations that should radically alter the national debate. Go now. Read. It. All.

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