The Risks of the al-Zarqawi Myth

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/resist/2004/1214zarqawilegend.htm

For months now, the Bush administration had been building up the image of a massive network of foreign terrorists using Falluja as a base for their terror attacks against targets associated with the interim government of Iyad Allawi and the US military which backs him.

One name appeared in western media accounts, over and over again: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a wanted Jordanian turned alleged "terror" mastermind. Almost overnight, Zarqawi's terrorist group, al-Qaida Holy War for Iraq, expanded its operations across the width and breadth of Iraq. Al-Zarqawi was everywhere, his bombers striking in Mosul, Baghdad, Samarra, Najaf, Baquba, Ramadi and Falluja. Islamist websites published accounts of al-Zarqawi's actions, and the western media, together with western intelligence services, ran with these stories, giving them credibility. The al-Zarqawi legend, if one can call it that, was born.

The problem is, there is simply no substance to this legend, as US marines are now finding out. Rather than extremist foreign fighters battling to the death, the marines are mostly finding local men from Falluja who are fighting to defend their city from what they view as an illegitimate occupier. The motivations of these fighters may well be anti-American, but they are Iraqi, not foreign, in origin. There is, indeed, evidence of a foreign presence. But they were not the ones running the show in Falluja, or elsewhere for that matter. As a result, the US-led assault on Falluja may go down in history as the tipping point for the defeat of the US occupation of Iraq. The January 2005 elections are now very much in doubt, and anti-coalition violence has erupted throughout Iraq (including from sources claiming to be aligned with - no surprise - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi).

Reflecting back, one cannot help but wonder if al-Zarqawi was used as a lure to trap the Americans into taking this action. On the surface, the al-Zarqawi organisation seems too good to be true. A single Jordanian male is suddenly running an organisation that operates in sophisticated cells throughout Iraq. No one man could logically accomplish this. But there is an organisation that can - the Mukhabarat (intelligence) of Saddam Hussein. According to former Iraqi intelligence personnel I have communicated with recently, the Mukhabarat, under instructions from Saddam Hussein, had been preparing for some time before the invasion of Iraq on how to survive, resist and defeat any US-led occupation of Iraq. A critical element of this resistance was to generate chaos and anarchy that would destabilise any US-appointed Iraqi government.

[FloridaPat]

1. I think even the stupid Americans would start screaming about the

invasion if all they heard was how Iraqis are defending their own country against people they believe are invaders. We are known for taking the side of the underdog. Can you imagine that story going around and the news hours filled with pictures of dead or maimed women and children? Or how about releasing the rest of the pictures and videos of abu Gabe with the rapes of women and men by US soldiers.

And journalists are getting killed right and left over there plus the owners of the MSM are getting rich over here. Although their ratings seem to be dropping rather badly.

Yes, we need a villian for the public to focus on. Or they might notice the real villian is in the White House.

[Kansas Wyatt]

2. I still cannot figure out why Zarqawi would....

Want the world to know that he cuts off the heads of Americans and films it so he can declare to the world that it is him doing it, yet Zarqawi hides and disguises his identity on the film footage.

[NNN0LHI]

3. He gives his name but hides his face? Odd indeed n/t

[lonestarnot]

4. Zorro the head chopper...if you believe did stuff...propoganda likes easy

marks. They won't have to work hard. LOL