U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta appeared to confuse the history of the Iraq War Monday, telling American troops that 9/11 is the reason why they are stationed in the country.
“The reason you guys are here is because of 9/11,” Panetta told approximately 150 soldiers at the Camp Victory base in Baghdad. “The U.S. got attacked and 3,000 human beings got killed because of Al Qaeda.”
“We’ve been fighting as a result of that,” he explained.
The Pentagon chief’s line of reasoning echoes that of the former Bush administration, which initially justified the 2003 invastion of Iraq by linking the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussien, to the 9/11 attacks.
Those justifications have since been dismissed by President Obama, the 9/11 commission and several Democrats.
Panetta’s spokesman, Doug Wilson, immediately corrected the mistake, adding that the defense secretary is “a plain-spoken secretary.”
“I don’t think he’s getting into the argument of 2002-2003,” Wilson said.
“He has made clear that the major threat to this country is coming from Al Qaeda and terrorist groups, and he has also made clear that wherever we are in the world today, that [Al Qaeda] is a principle reason for a military presence,” Wilson added.
Panetta later explained his remarks when pressed by reporters.
“I wasn’t saying, you know, the invasion – or going into the issues or the justification of that,” Panetta said. “It was more the fact that we really had to deal with Al Qaeda here, they developed a presence here and that tied in.”
Panetta’s visit to Camp Victory is part of his inaugural visit to Iraq as defense secretary. Panetta took over the Pentagon after the retirement of Robert Gates.
The former CIA director also fumbled during his visit to Afghanistan Saturday when he told reporters that the U.S. plans to keep 70,000 troops in the country until 2014.
Obama, however, announced that he would immediately begin a consistent withdrawal of troops last month.
Panetta’s aides were quick to retract his statement.
DN
