Fred Kaplan points out that the Iraqi suicide bombers are not terrorists contrary to the American regime's comments about them. The distinction is that the targets are armed combatants. Such acts violate the Geneva Conventions but they are not terrorism.

Still, the Bush regime is trying to trump up a tie between al-Qaeda and Iraq that most likely does not exist. They have departed so far from any sort of good faith debate on this point that they share more and more characteristics with another regime whose fall is imminent.

Over the past 18 months, President Bush has uttered "Sept. 11" and "Iraq" in the same sentence so many times that a large percentage of the American public believes Iraq had something to do with the attack on the World Trade Center. Describing Iraqi battlefield tactics as "terrorist attacks" subtly, even subliminally, reinforces this message.