WASHINGTON — In describing Iraq as the "central front" in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, President Bush was sounding a theme that continues to resonate powerfully with the American people -- even as some in the counter- terrorism community increasingly wonder whether the assertion is true mainly because the American invasion made it so.
The president invoked the terrorism theme repeatedly in his speech to the nation Sunday night, portraying the invasion of Iraq as part of the U.S. response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
To have reacted otherwise, he suggested, would have reinforced the image of the United States as reluctant to confront terrorism head on, and would have imperiled more American lives.
"We have carried the fight to the enemy," Bush said. "We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence but at the heart of its power."
Iraq, it was clear the president meant, was within that "heart" of power.
Tying Iraq to the war on terrorism has become crucial to the Bush administration's appeal for continued public support, particularly with the failure so far to find banned weapons and the ongoing turmoil that is undercutting visions of a swift transition to democracy that might spread across the Middle East.
But the terrorism link is problematic. The administration has yet to prove that deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had any complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks, or even any significant relationship with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. For that reason, some counter- terrorism experts challenge Bush's characterization.
"I do think this argument about terrorism is disingenuous," said James Steinberg, vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan public policy center in Washington. "This wasn't the place you had to confront Al Qaeda. They weren't there, and this is not what that war was about."
Meanwhile, the war has attracted foreign fighters to Iraq, Al Qaeda members reportedly among them, U.S. officials say. Some counter-terrorism officials and experts are expressing concern that the war could incite a new generation of terrorists.
White House officials bristled at the suggestion that the war in Iraq had exacerbated the terrorism problem.
