Democratic Senator Argues Jordan Attacks Linked to Iraq War

Nov. 17, 2005 — -- As lawmakers and the White House trade increasingly heated accusations over the Iraq War, one Democratic senator with potential presidential aspirations is arguing last week's terrorist attacks in Jordan are at least indirectly connected to the U.S. policy in Iraq.

In an interview with ABC News, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., said the deadly attacks on hotels in Amman are "the whirlwind that we are reaping if we don't end the extreme ground involvement that we have in Iraq."

"What's happening in Iraq is that we have created the ultimate breeding ground for the terrorist network," Feingold said. "This is what the head of the CIA, Porter Goss, has said. And we just saw terrible evidence last week in what happened in Jordan. Iraqis -- who clearly were not involved with al Qaeda prior to our invasion -- were trained by Zarqawi, a Jordanian, to leave Iraq and kill allies of ours in Jordan."

Feingold, who is considering a presidential run in 2008, has unequivocally opposed the Iraq war, and at times taken on his fellow Democrats over the issue.

In 2004, Feingold publicly chided the Democratic presidential ticket for their votes on the Iraq war and the $87 billion to fund it. "They got the order of the votes wrong. Their other votes were correct. They just got those wrong," he told the Capital Times.

When Senate Democrats stepped up their criticism recently of the Bush administration's handling of pre-war intelligence, Feingold criticized them in a Salon magazine opinion article for paying "scant attention to how and when the U.S. should bring its primary military mission in that country to a close."

In August, he called for setting a specific target date of Dec. 31, 2006, for completing the military mission and removing all U.S. forces from Iraq.

"If you think you made a mistake before, you ought to be for getting us out of there in an honorable way, instead of letting the president lead us around by the nose by saying that we can't have a timetable," Feingold said.