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On Monday, Vice President Cheney went ahead and attempted to restate the claim that Saddam was connected to al Qaeda. Although many Americans still believe that Saddam has his hands in the 9/11 attacks, Cheney should have known better than to make such a silly claim. Saddam was a horrible person and one of the worst tyrants in recent memory. There is no doubt that he was an avid supporter of destabilizing terrorism around the world, particularly aimed at Israel and the US.

I, like many Americans, thought that his removal from power would be cause in and of itself. Although I think Bush's team has miserably implemented the war and especially its aftermath, I separate the decision to go to war (good) from the amount of success in rebuilding the country (not so much). However, the current Administration, in dire straights, is once again trying to lie to the American people to strenghthen its case for war. What the administration does not understand is that regardless of of the (arguably) sound reasoning behind going to war, they cannot improve people's perceptions of the rebuilding process by misleading the nation with faulty intelligence.

Luckily, we as Americans appointed a commission to look into 9/11, and luckily we staffed it with competent people like Lee Hamilton, Richard Ben Veniste and Bob Kerrey. Today, the 9/11 Commission debunked the Bush Administration's false claim that Saddam had deep ties with al Qaeda. They went even further, though, showing that Saddam was not allied with al Qaeda, and that in fact he had rebuffed them.

This is an important point that many Americans unfortunately are unable to grasp. Many Americans believe that all Muslims are Arabs, and that all Arabs are Fundamentalist. Using this logic, it would thus make sense that many would believe that Saddam and Osama, two Muslims who hated America with a passion, would be in cahoots. However, not all Muslims are Arabs, and not all Arabs are Fundamentalist. In fact, Saddam's secularist brand of quasi-socialism would have most certainly been anathema to a radical Wahabbi like bin Laden. Moreover, though Saddam certainly supported terrorism, he did not want to strengthen al Qaeda for fear that it may take over Saudi Arabia in time.

This, in a nutshell, is what the Commission was trying to get at. Sometimes I wish we had an Administration that was willing to listen to reason and fact, especially from a body as bipartisan as the 9/11 Commission...