Bush follows through on 'Zawahiri letter' stratagem

A fake prez responds to a fake letter from John Negroponte's office, probably.

washingtompost: U.S. Will Not Flee Iraq, Bush Says

President Bush said yesterday that the United States "will not run" from Iraq, directly challenging a prediction that U.S. officials have attributed to al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, who said American power in Iraq may rapidly collapse, as it did in Vietnam when the U.S. "ran and left their agents," creating a governmental vacuum.

In his weekly radio address, the president took the unusual step of replying to statements from a letter seized in military operations in Iraq that American intelligence officials said was from Ayman Zawahiri to Abu Musab Zarqawi, the terrorist commander in that country. The letter was released last Tuesday in Arabic and English by Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte. Read more

db: Given a choice between Juan Cole's skepticism and Negroponte's recommendation we have clearly gone with the former, by a mile.