Say What? Defense Secretary Panetta Tells Troops They're in Iraq Because of 9/11 Attack

Looks like Panetta is off to a stellar start. The Washington Post reports:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday appeared to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq as part of the war against al-Qaeda, an argument controversially made by the Bush administration but refuted by President Obama and many Democrats.

While speaking in Iraq to soldiers, the Post reports:

"The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked," Panetta told the troops. "And 3,000 Americans -- 3,000 not just Americans, 3,000 human beings, innocent human beings -- got killed because of al-Qaeda. And we've been fighting as a result of that."

Really? Our Secretary of Defense in 2011 is still re-iterating Bushisms about Iraq. I thought we had debunked that big old lie, but apparently one pretty important person in charge of our military didn't get the memo.

As Joan McCarter writes for Daily Kos:

Granted, telling troops who are still risking their lives in Iraq that they are still there based on a big fat lie, a war of choice that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda, which had nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq, wouldn't do anything to help what is undoubtedly already pretty shitty morale.

But he didn't have to go with the big Bush lie.