Why ARE We In Iraq?

Last week in The Press of Atlantic City, Voice of the People (August 23, 2005), a writer wrote a letter to the editor informing anyone who questions why the US invaded Iraq that they need to ask the families of the 9-11 victims why we're in Iraq. So I did a little research on what some of the families of the 9-11 attacks had to say about the war in Iraq, and the battle in Afghanistan.
In September 2003, several dozen family members of people killed in the 9-11 attacks led about 2,000 supporters in a candlelight procession down Broadway from Union Square to the site where the World Trade Center once stood. There the group formed a vast ring around the site of what was once the World Trade Center, and held a vigil called to both remember those who died in the 9-11 attacks and to oppose US military action in Iraq. This demonstration, organized by those who lost family members in the 9-11 attacks, opposed the lie that the attack on Iraq was justified by 9-11. (www.wsws.org, 9/12/03).
The attack on Iraq struck many emotions of the 9-11 victims and families. “Personally, it feels like Sept. 11 all over again,” said Kelly Campbell, co-founder of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. “Only this time, it’s the people of Iraq that will experience what we’ve gone through…” Campbell’s brother-in-law, Craig Amundson, 28, was killed in the attack on the Pentagon. Campbell further stated that “the president has never provided anything resembling a link between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, yet he continues to use our loved ones’ deaths to promote this unrelated war….And we’re very worried that this very unpopular war is really going to fuel the fires of terrorism.” (www.USATODAY.com, 3/20/03). The September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows held a “No More Victims” panel in NYC on September 8, 2002 to promote public dialogue on alternatives to war (www.pww.org/article/articleprint/1947) .
Talat Hamdani, mother of Salman Hamdani, 23, another victim of the World Trade Center attack said, “What (the terrorists) have done is wrong, but if we respond the same way, what is the difference between them and us?” Hamdani asks, “Whoever dies, it’s still a mother’s child that dies. Somewhere a mother cries. That is what the world does not seem to understand.” One year after 9-11, Hamdani and many others, questioned whether war was the answer. (www.war-times.org/issues/5art.html) .
So, to the writer of the letter, who, like George Bush, wrongly links 9-11 to Iraq, I have a few things to say. First of all the families of the victims of 9-11 do not all want revenge through more death and destruction. Secondly, there was never any connection between 9-11 and Iraq. So, why the U.S. is there, has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with 9-11. Thirdly, I again ask the question, “Why are we in Iraq?”
People still continue to believe Bush's bullshit trying to link Iraq/Hussein with the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Why does anyone believe anything Bush says? He has done nothing but distort the truth since "stealing" his way in to the White House.