senator blames israel for iraq war

Well, what a surprise!


WASHINGTON [MENL] -- A U.S. senator has blamed Israel for the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq.

Sen. Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, wrote a column that appeared in several newspapers that asserted that the U.S. war against Iraq represented a decision by President George Bush to protect Israel and ensure American Jewish support for his reelection. The column was reprinted on Hollings's website.

"Bush felt tax cuts would hold his crowd together and spreading democracy in the Mideast to secure Israel would take the Jewish vote from the Democrats," Hollings said in a column first published on May 6 in the Charleston Post and Courier. "You don't come to town and announce your Israel policy is to invade Iraq."

Congressional sources said Hollings was expressing a view that has become increasingly prevalent in Congress and parts of the administration. The view attributes the U.S. war in Iraq to the so-called neo-conservatives in the administration, particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle. Both men are Jewish.