Scott McClellan wanted to have it both ways in today's WH Press Briefing:
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Q How are you going to get unity, strength and resolve if you have large populations in Europe opposed to what the United States has done? And if you get the leadership to shift, as happened in this election in Spain --
MR. McCLELLAN: Let's distinguish here, there's the global war on terrorism, and I think in some instances you're referring to some differences on Iraq. What's important to remember is that -- I think that we would disagree with some of the suggestions you made in your question there. I think many of the Iraqi people would disagree, and I think that the coalition in Iraq would disagree.
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Q Scott, there are some conservatives who believe that there's a real crisis in the transatlantic relationship over the war on terror. You said just a minute ago that there's a difference between supporting the U.S. in the war on terror and Iraq. But you're the one --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I said let's make a distinction there. I mean, he was --
Q All right, but you guys don't make that distinction.
MR. McCLELLAN: It's the global war on terrorism --
Q Now, wait a second. The central front in the war on terror is Iraq, according to this President.
MR. McCLELLAN: And countries are contributing in many different ways in the war on terrorism.
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OK, I'm confused. We on the Left have been saying for a year and a half now, that the invasion of Iraq was not part of a War on Terrorism. This adminstration has been using "Iraq War" and "War on Terror" synonymously. But now that Spain is going to pull out of Iraq (and Iraq is going miserably), it's now appropriate to draw distinctions? So I guess now if the war in Iraq fails, they'll be able to say the War on Terror didn't fail, because the two are newly different and distinct, as the rest of the world (notably Spain) has been saying all along.
(Later Scottie retreats to the more comfortable idea that Iraq is the "central front in the War on Terror.")
These people boggle the mind.