Fourteen months after American troops entered Iraq, the President is still trying to justify his decision to invade. Still refusing to admit that it was the American invasion that brought terrorists to Iraq, not the other way around, yesterday he used the gruesome death of Nick Berg for his own political purposes. Of course, what Bush left out was the fact that Nick Berg and hundreds of other Americans, Iraqis and others would be alive today had he not attacked Iraq without good reason in the first place.

President Bush on Friday blamed al-Qaida supporter Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for beheading American Nicholas Berg and cited him as an example of Saddam Hussein's "terrorist ties" before the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Bush's revival of accusations linking Saddam to terrorism comes as the president faces growing doubts among Americans over his Iraq policy.

At a fund-raising lunch in Bridgeton, Mo., Bush said Zarqawi was an example of the threat posed by the ousted Iraqi leader. "We knew he (Saddam) had terrorist ties. The person responsible for the Berg death, Zarqawi, was in and out of Baghdad prior to our arrival, for example," Bush said. (Reuters)