If you repeat it often enough...

President Bush, defending his troop surge in Iraq, insisted Thursday that the insurgents attacking US troops in Iraq "are the same ones who attacked us on Sept. 11."

Bush was speaking at a White House press conference on the same day an interim progress report on his troop surge in Iraq was released. Asked for proof of the connection between insurgents in Iraq and the 9/11 hijackers, Bush said both had pledged their allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

"The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq are the ones who attacked us on Sept. 11," Bush said. [Rawstory]

Well, that will just reinforce the 50%+ of people who think that Saddam Hussein/Iraq had something to do with 9/11. Link them enough verbally -- even if you don't explicitly say that they were responsible--and people believe it. Of course, now we have Bush actually saying it explicitly, I guess.

Recent intelligence reports have concluded that al-Quaida has actually rebuilt their organization (if you can call it that) to levels that have not been seen since 9/11. THey have been able to rebuild despite six years of war.

How can this be viewed by Americans as anything other than proof positive of the utter failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy?