WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- President Bush Friday slammed the idea U.S. actions in Iraq or elsewhere are responsible for terrorism or make the United States less safe.
Those arguments, he said, "buys into enemy propaganda that the terrorists attack us because we're provoking them. I want to remind American citizens that we were not in Iraq on Sept. the 11th, 2001."
Bush made the statement during a Washington speech on the war on terror to the Reserve Officers' Association.
Bush said the leak of portions of a National Intelligence Estimate last week had led to heated debate in the country, with some selectively quoting from the document to argue the war in Iraq was a recruiting tool for terrorists and made America less safe.
Bush said such an attitude, if adopted by leaders in Washington, would lead America "back to the old days of waiting to be attacked and then respond."
"Terrorism is not our fault," he said, quoting British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We didn't cause it. And it is not a consequence of foreign policy,"
Bush said, "He's right. You do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism."
The classified document that analyzed terror trends resulted from the work of 16 intelligence agencies. It said the war in Iraq had become a "cause célèbre" for jihadists.
