Common Ground

From the third 2004 Alan Keyes-Barack Obama debate for the US Senate:

OBAMA: I don’t think that Mr. Keyes knowledge of the situation is better than Donald Rumsfeld’s or the other experts who have confirmed that there was no connection between those who perpetrated the attacks of 9/11 and Iraq. This was an ideologically driven war. But now we do have a hotbed of terrorism to fight in Iraq.

Sadly, Abu Nidal wasn't available for a rebuttal after having shot himself three times in the head. He might have been offended at someone inferring that S. Hussein al-Tikriti wasn't really the proud sponsor of terrorism he had always assumed.

Someone else who might have taken offense was Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who spoke out today:

"The barbaric ... attack on our [Arab] people in Gaza is the natural result of the absence of Iraq, its national leadership and its leader ... the martyr Saddam Hussein," said Ibrahim, a leader of Iraqi insurgents.

Hmm, the cancer drugs have really been working miracles (probably came from America). Oddly, Izzat and Obama seem to be in agreement that Saddam was the linchpin of peace in the Middle East and the great preventer of terrorism. That will give them some opening common ground when they eventually meet without preconditions to discuss our defeat (Izzat's also in agreement with another party re Gaza but please don't make any connections there).