Common Sense

That was the expression I heard from a friend today when he told me about Van Taylor’s appearance on Hardball last night. He was debating Chris Matthews and Paul Hackett over the war in Iraq, and he made quite a buffoon of himself. You can get away with challenging the host to a duel, but not with feeding Chris soundbites.

VAN TAYLOR (R-TX), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE:  We need to stay in Iraq until we get the job done there.  We have got to defeat al Qaeda terrorists that are trying to take over the country of Iraq and use it as a launching pad to conduct terrorist attacks in the region and possibly even on the United States.

MATTHEWS:  And where did al Qaeda come from?

TAYLOR:  Al Qaeda is an amorphous organization.

MATTHEWS:  No no, the people that are fighting it that you say are threatening us in Iraq, where did they come from?

TAYLOR:  Al Qaeda made a conscious, tactical decision to do battle with the United States in Iraq and we have responded and fought them there.  We need to fight them there because if we don‘t fight them there, we are going to fight them here at home.

MATTHEWS:  So they came in since we went in?

TAYLOR:  There is no question.  I mean, they made a decision in the summer of 2003 to come into Iraq and launch an attack against the United States forces.

MATTHEWS:  So there wouldn‘t have been an al Qaeda component of the size there is  — there wouldn‘t have been that threat if we hadn‘t gone in in the first place.

Oh, there’s more, my favorite as a matter of fact.

TAYLOR:  We need to send people to Washington that understand the war on terror.  There was a time in our country …

HACKETT:  Look the war on terror, terror is a strategy.  It‘s not a philosophy.

TAYLOR:  … with many members of had Congress have served better—

Paul, I‘m going to finish this.  You‘ve interrupted me in the past.  You are not going to interrupt me here.

MATTHEWS:  Let him finish, please.

TAYLOR:  OK, we have got to win the war on terror.  Al Qaeda is a vicious terrorist organization.  They are seeking to destroy our way of life.  They have come to this country.  They have attacked us.  They are attacking U.S. forces in Iraq.  They have attacked U.S. forces around the world.  They‘ve got to be dealt with.  You cannot put your head in the sand.  You cannot walk away.

HACKETT:  So what‘s the strategy?

MATTHEWS:  OK, let me ask you the question.  Mr. Taylor, the president of the United States held a press conference yesterday and he was asked what role did Iraq play on the al Qaeda attack on us on 9/11?  He said nothing, no role.  You say something different it sounds like.

TAYLOR:  Today, in Iraq al Qaeda …

MATTHEWS:  No, he said they had nothing—he said—no, he said they had nothing—do you agree with that, with the president that they had nothing to do with the attack of 9/11?

TAYLOR:  They had no direct involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

MATTHEWS:  Well, what do you mean no direct?  Answer the question.

The president said no connection.  What connection do you draw?

TAYLOR:  As far as I know, I do not believe they have any direct involvement with the attack on 9/11.  I agree with the president.

MATTHEWS:  So why did we attack Iraq then?  Why did we attack Iraq then?

TAYLOR:  Regardless of why we may have started fighting, and I served as a marine …

MATTHEWS:  I‘m asking the question, why did we attack Iraq?  Why did we go into Iraq?

TAYLOR:  That‘s not the question that we need answered.

My favorite line from the whole clip (which you can watch on YouTube thanks to the BurntOrangeReport group) is when Matthews again asks why we went into Iraq. Taylor replies, “That is something you can ask historians.” Van keeps presenting that false choice of ‘fight them in Iraq so we don’t have to fight them over here.’ If we’ve learned anything in the past 5 years, it should be that terrorists have figured out how to buy plane tickets on CheapTickets.com. If anything, we’re distracted from the real war on terror by Iraq.

And to think I was going to be nice and mention the new Van Taylor ad that is also up at YouTube when I woke up this morning. Too bad I’m not a nice person. I will point you to the Chet Edwards contribution page, though.