Releasing a video of the mythical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with Zarqawi calling President George W. Bush a liar is an obvious and transparent piece of psychological propaganda. It kills, as it were, a number of birds with one stone. First, of course, we see a clear and reasonably high definition image of an unmasked person who we are told is Zarqawi – ‘he exists!’ the propagandists are shouting, ‘Here he is in all his glory’ they implore us to believe. This is expected to dispel any myths surrounding his existence and the doubts that surround the myths – especially after having been told that some of the claims made by the US military about Zarqawi had been ‘exaggerated’.[1] Well, now he’s done it. Now everybody knows exactly what he looks like. And with tens of millions of dollars bounty on his head, how’s he going to get away? He’s certainly made it difficult for himself to hide anywhere. Could he really be that stupid? Or could it be that the propagandists simply hadn’t fully thought through the implications of such exposure.
As for calling Bush a liar[2], now that is clever. If such an ‘evil killer’ as Zarqawi calls Bush a liar it can only mean that Bush actually isn’t. In the minds of the dumb and gullible only the opposite of what Zarqawi claims can be true – after all, is he not the ‘master of evil’?
All this comes just days after the tape of Zarqawi’s boss, Osama bin Laden, re-resurrected yet again from the dead in order to perpetuate yet another myth, is ‘released’ to the world. Like the man said, ‘you can fool some of the people all of the time…’
Are there any people out there really that dumb and gullible or is it just the propagandists themselves that are just so dumb that they expect people out there will actually believe this garbage?
ENDNOTES
[1] Adrian Blomfield, ‘How US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind’, Telegraph, 4 October 2004. Available online: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml Accessed 27 April 2006. See also: Sebastian Rotella, ‘US Casts Fugitive as a Super-Villain: Critics say an accused terrorist’s role in Iraq attacks is exaggerated, noting weak evidence’, Common Dreams New Center, 7 March 2004. Available online: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0307-02.htm Accessed 27 April 2006.
[2] Karen DeYoung, ‘Zarqawi emerges from shadows to call Bush a liar’, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 2006. Available online: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/zarqawi-emerges-from-shadows-to-call-bush-a-liar/2006/04/26/1145861419275.html Accessed 27 April 2006.
AUSTRALIANS AT WAR
THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY is a compelling factual history of neoconservatism and its influence on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Click on image above for details.
4 comments:
As I understood it, Damien, it was Zarqawi who released the tape to al-Jazeera.
Why would he want to perpetuate his own myth? Wouldn't this be a more interesting question to investigate than trying to pin it all on another conspiracy of the right?
Dylan
What makes you think that al-Zarqawi released the tape to al-Jazeera? Where did you get this information from? Have you questioned the source of this assertion?
Your statement: “Why would he want to perpetuate his own myth?” is an oxymoron. If he is just a myth then how can he perpetuate himself? If he isn’t a myth then there is nothing to perpetuate. So far there is no evidence at all to suggest that he is anything more than just a myth. You start out on the presumption that all that the US military has said about him is true. Why would we want to believe anything the US military says? They are as untrustworthy as Bush.
Lataan
Damian, I don't start from the assumption that everything anyone says is always true. I start with the assumptions a reasonable person would make.
If there are videos of someone and that someone is identified by everyone (including people hostile to the US position) as Zarqawi, then it seems reasonable to assume it is him. Thus, it would seem to follow that Zarqawi is not a myth.
You are right that how I termed my comment was oxymoronic - it was purposeful in order to demonstrate the absurdity of your position.
As for sources, try this one from New America Media (http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=b583440d843299a38e930865ad7d2a3a) which outlines, with comments from someone who has previously made docos about Zarqawi, how his releasing of this tape is part of a concerted "media war" between the terrorists and the US.
Just Google "zarqawi tape jazeera" and you will find hundreds of other sources which state the same.
I think you might need to stop interpreting current affaors from a standpoint that has, as its foundation, the notion that America must be lying about everything and, further, that there is a conspiracy of likeminded persons from 'the right' (whatever that may be) who are out to destroy democracy, freedom and everything else you hold dear. While your conclusions are amusing in their strangeness, they do not, in my view, reflect a "telling of the history of the 21st century like it really is".
Dylan,
None of what you have provided is proof positive of Abu al-Zarqawi’s continued existence as a ‘terrorist’. There is no evidence whatsoever of al-Zarqawi still being around and there is no evidence at all to demonstrate that he is the head of ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’. An image of a person repeatedly shown by a propagandist source does not a reality make. The bottom line is; there is no prima facie evidence to suggest that his exploits and pronouncements are anything other than mythical or the figment of American propagandist’s imagination.
Just Google “zarqawi myth” and you will find thousands of sources suggesting that that is all he is.
Anything related to US foreign policy, particularly that related to Israel and the Middle East, should be taken with a pinch of salt, especially in the light of the lies that were told that has since resulted in the invasion, occupation, plundering and deaths of ten of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and the lies that are being told about Iran at the moment with regard to its nuclear ambitions. (Where have we heard all this before?)
Lataan
Post a Comment