If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks; they’d seize oil fields to fund their ambitions; they could recruit more terrorists by claiming an historic victory over the United States and our coalition.

We had to go into Iraq so that when we screwed things up by going into Iraq, we would be there to — no, see, my brain hurts just thinking about it. Zarqawi and bin Laden gaining control of Iraq was not an issue until we invaded the country.

It’s a little like a kid who gets his hand caught in the cookie jar and claims it wasn’t him, that it’s not his hand or there is no jar, and then finally breaks down and says, okay, yes, he had his hand in the cookie jar, but it was only to keep the cookies away from other people — very bad people, who might use the cookies to spoil other people’s appetites before dinner. Except, of course, nobody dies over cookies.