http://mediamatters.org/items/200707050004AP, NY Times, Wash. Post uncritically reported Bush claim that terrorists "would follow us here" from IraqIn articles on President Bush's July 4 speech to the 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post uncritically reported Bush's oft-used defense of his Iraq war policy -- that Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq will attack Americans inside the United States if U.S. troops withdraw "before the job is done." Yet none of the articles noted that security and terrorism experts have challenged Bush's view, despite several recent news reports on this dispute, including a March 18 Post article.
The AP directly quoted Bush's speech, while the Times and the Post paraphrased his claim. From the July 4 AP article:
"Victory in this struggle will require more patience, more courage, and more sacrifice," Bush told the guardsmen and their families in a half-hour speech in a cavernous aircraft maintenance hangar at the 167th Airlift Wing.
"If we were to quit Iraq before the job is done, the terrorists we are fighting would not declare victory and lay down their arms. They would follow us here."
That line played well with the crowd.
From the July 5 Times article:
Mr. Bush said if the United States were to leave Iraq now, Al Qaeda "would be able to establish their safe haven from which to do two things: to further spread their ideology and to plan and plot attacks against the United States."
Victory, he said, "will require more patience, more courage, and more sacrifice."