Iraq and al-Qaeda

Over at Think Progress, they've got themselves in a tizzy because Chris Wallace of FOX said that Bush never said there were links between Saddam and al-Qaeda:

In a stunning display of historical revisionism, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace argued this morning that President Bush never tried to link al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein...

I for one also think Wallace was wrong but for immensely different reason than the libs at TP. There was a link between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda. Wallace should have said something to this effect:

Within a short time of the downfall of Baghdad, the attacks using IED's began. It has been proven that most of the attacks are being implemented by terrorists from outside Iraq. They are al-Qaeda trained and have taken the name al-Qaeda of Iraq or al-Qaeda of the Land of the Two Rivers. Does the Democratic party (and TP) think that there was no existing infrastructure for al-Qaeda in place so that they could start attacking our troops and civilians within days of the fall of Baghdad?

Anyone who knows of matters military can deduce that you would have had to have a major network of safehouses and explosive material in place. They were not put in place after we took over and ousted Saddam and his rapist, murderous sons.

Wallace in essence said that Bush never said that, Bush did say this in so many words and it has proven to be true. There is no feasible way logistically that an organization with the capabilities that Zarqawi's al-Qaeda posseses could've been active so quickly without having infrastructure in place prior to our invasion. Furthermore, they could never have set up their operation without the knowledge and complicity of Saddam Hussein.

Also, TP links to this Bush statement from 2003 prior to the onset of hostilities:

...Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. And an al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases...

Al-Qaeda was known to be scouring rogue nations for any weapons they could procure. Does any sane person really believe that they would not have contacted someone in Iraq to inquire about buying theses weapons? That nation was under (we now know very weak) sanctions and were restricted in their ability to trade.

I think the true revisionists are those at Think Progress and their lefty blog brethren, but then, socialists perfected revisionism and the creation of the un-person, why should we expect less from TP.