It was reassuring — in a Nightmare on Elm Street sort of way — that Sarah Palin, in what can be considered her first foreign-policy address, repeated the discredited Bush administration mantra that the war in Iraq is being fought in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Even the president himself has rejected his oft-repeated contention that the Al Qaeda hijackers came from Iraq, but this did not prevent John McCain’s running mate from trotting out the canard in a speech yesterday to an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that includes her son.
Although neocon pundits like William Kristol rushed to defend their new darling, Palin could not have been more unambiguous in declaring that the departing brigade will “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”
Palin further burnished her foreign-policy credentials in her much anticipated interview with ABC News‘s Charles Gibson.
Pressed about what insights into recent Russian actions she gleaned by living in Alaska, Palin answered:
“They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
Which prompted Krista, a commenter at Balloon Juice, to respond:
“And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a f—king astronaut now, does it?”