I’ve wanted to speculate about that for so long. But, it’s like suggesting the Emperor has no clothes. And look where our myth-building has gotten us: At Sunday’s World Cup qualifying in Mexico City, ‘The crowd booed the U.S. national anthem and a spattering of fans chanted ‘Osama! Osama!‘ before play started, and shortly after” a U.S. goal. So, I’ll stick my toe in the water and see what YOU think:
What caught my eye this morning: A letter to the editor of The NewStandard titled “Just Say It: Zarqawi Was Created by the U.S.”
A cunning and dangerous nemesis was spawned full-grown from the bowels of the Pentagon like Athena from the mind of Zeus. … Their creation was given a curriculum vitae with flaws that a modicum of reasoning would detect.
The ruse of making up a persona is nothing original. …
Two dividends are obvious. The first is to sow as much discord as possible between various religious and ethnic groups … The second [dividend is] that it will attract many discontented, young, naïve anti-American militants in Iraq and the surrounding region so they can be controlled and dealt with.
The article, “Reputed Terrorist Al-Zarqawi Still Shrouded in U.S.-Fed Myth, Mystery,” is authored by Chris Shumway, a university communications instructor and media activist.
The Bush administration’s nearly constant focus on suspected Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi … has helped turn the Islamic fundamentalist into a figure of mythic proportions, but despite the hype and hyperbole … little is actually known about the man or his alleged misdeeds.
[So] many of the US’s claims about Al-Zarqawi’s whereabouts and affiliations have proved suspect or false that many critics view new warnings of his alleged plans to stage attacks within the US as a case of the White House crying wolf. …
… much of the previously released information about Al-Zarqawi has been contradictory. …
British journalist and author Jason Burke, according to Shumway, has done a biography of Al-Zarqawi but notes that Al-Zarqawi’s group and Al Qaeda were rivals, he never swore allegiance to bin Laden, and — probably most important — “Al-Zarqawi is part of a broad movement of Islamic militancy that extends well beyond the influence and activities of any one man.”
“We were basically paying up to $10,000 a time to opportunists, criminals and chancers who passed off fiction and supposition about Al-Zarqawi as cast-iron fact, making him out as the linchpin of just about every attack in Iraq,” an unnamed US agent in Iraq reportedly told Britain’s Daily Telegraph in October 2004.
“From the information we have gathered,” one agent told the Telegraph, “we have to conclude Al-Zarqawi is more myth than man… At some stage, and perhaps even now, he was almost certainly behind some of the kidnappings. But if there is a main leader of the insurgency, he would be an Iraqi.”
I’ll just add that I think the role of Al Qaeda (whatever that is) and of bni Laden are wildly exaggerated and that a lot of tiny cells act wholly indpendent of each other. Could be wrong. Wish it were that simple.
Once the government “created” this terrorist they could sit back and wait awhile. THEn remember when Zarqawi then announced to the world via the internet and our media that he was now a member of al-quaida? That would give them the excuse they so desperately needed to give just reason to be in Iraq. Then they could stamp their feet and point out that the ‘terrorists and Saddam and 9/11 and bin Laden were all connected. They HAD to make this guy up and guess what? It worked so far anyway. Just my itty bitty minds .02 cents worth.
Well, it would explain Goss’s reaction when Bush said that he was still looking for Osama… I think he is dead or in captivity and will be released in 2006 in time to give the GOP victories in the Mid-terms
… who said that by not going after Osama and Al Qaeda vigorously that the Administration allowed Al Qaeda to metamorphose into a franchise or hydra.
Another intelligence official (sorry, I forget where I read this) claims that it is preferable to keep Osama pinned down in NE Pakistan than to make him into a martyr for his cause.
However it was this line “The second [dividend is] that it will attract many discontented, young, naïve anti-American militants in Iraq and the surrounding region so they can be controlled and dealt with” that really struck me. Dealt with? If you mean take young, naive anti-American militants and turn them into battle-hardened terrorists in the largest live-fire training ground in the world, then yes! If you mean create legions more young, naive anti-American militants whose idea of a ticket to paradise is the violent death of Americans, then yes. If you mean, gather them in one place so they can be killed, then sadly, no!
Almost 4 years have passed since 9/11, and not only do we have no fricking idea where Bin Laden is, now we’ve got this guy, who no one has apparently ever seen (aside from his fellow terrorists, I suppose), and we can’t find him either.
I would have no problem believing that a lot of what we hear is fabricated government propaganda, including the existence of this man. After all, nothing’s more important than freedom, right? It’s all about freedom.
Whose? Not ours.
I’m listening to a documentary about McLuhan — he was just shown saying that the myth-making of the war (the Vietnam war) is so powerful that ‘the war has become fiction.”
Some say he is a historical figure, now dead, others say he never existed at all, still others insist he is a living breathing human being, like you and me.
All are correct, in a manner of speaking.
There has always been a Zarqawi, though in other times he may have been called a different name. What form he takes, whether it be man or legend, is as irrelevant as is the frequency and intensity with which it is debated.
For a few, Zarqawi is the evil that opposes the will of wealthy men, the ogre that stands between them and more gold, no matter in whose pocket it may currently reside.
For others, Zarqawi is the adrenaline of rage that annihilates my fear. If you harm those I love, my brain unleashes its Zarqawi and I will run screaming at a tank with a rifle, a rusty knife, or a beltful of plastique, already you have taken my life, my death will be an upgrade.
Zarqawi is what you see when you look into the eyes of an eight year old boy, his ragged clothes covered the blood of his little sister, who died from your bomb, your bullet, your fist.
Zarqawi blazes from the blistered eyes of hundreds, thousands, who lie gasping, sobbing, screaming in your dungeons, your “interrogation facilities.”
Zarqawi fills and bursts the heart of the father who clasps the ruined, beaten body of what was once his young daughter, she breathes now, but does not speak, she will never be young again, those dreams of graduation, wedding, grandchildren are gone now.
Zarqawi gives strength to the old woman, who stoops to save what she can of what to her is holy, from the rubble of the little home her husband built with his own hands, hands that will never caress her body again, in their place hooks, he is lucky.
It is because of her grandfather’s Zarqawi that a little girl born in a refugee camp, like her mother, like her father, can draw for you in the sand a map, and show you exactly where her home is, grandpa’s house, the family’s house, though no one in the family has been anywhere near it for over half a century.
It is Zarqawi that screams through the throats of millions, billions, NO! You cannot have my home my country my oil my daughtersonsandmosque!
The secret of Resistance is joy, the spirit of Resistance is Zarqawi.
And it is Zarqawi who collects the payment due when you shoot into the screams.
reposted from blog
Your comment encapsulated what I’ve been thinking for a year or more-but incredibly more eloquently-almost poetically.
In a British pantomime, there is one character called “the Baddie,” who is the focal point of evil for the audience to rally against. All the children and all the adults in the audience begin bantering whenever the Baddie walks on stage.
If a Baddie isn’t around (or if he is hiding too well in Pakistan), the government makes one up for us. It’s all explained in the 3-part BBC documentary “the Power of Nightmares.”
My favorite documentary series. Was it YOU who linked that at Kos a couple months ago? I followed the links, watched it, and then evangalized about it to anyone I could tell. It’s so beautifully organized — logical, chilling, riveting.
Anyone who wants to see it can search for “The Power of Nightmares” — it’s at the information clearinghouse — you can watch, listen and/or read.
I’ve definitely linked to “Nightmares” a couple of times at dKos, but I’m not the only one. For a low-res streaming version:
use this link
More recently, I’ve received a DVD through the mail (for educational purposed only, of course); I sent a small donation, since I think this info needs to get out.
link here. The contact info is written in green in the upper LH corner.
Rather a late comment, sorry.
So glad to see you posting this, Susan, and to see that others share my thoughts on the myth of Zarqawi. Channelling Gilbert and Sullivan: “He is the very model of a modern master terrorist.” Perhaps too much of a model.
Here and there, I’ve seen mention that he may not be all that Washington advertises, that he may not be alive any more, that he may never even have existed. But there are only isolated questions, with no continued discussion, no follow-on. Many, many questions, all ignored by conventional media.
Remember “The Maltese Falcon”? Zarqawi is the Bush administration’s McGuffin, the off-camera entity that justifies much of the action.