Al Qaeda All the Time
Without explanation, US military spokesmen in Iraq have taken to referring to all anti-occupation forces in Iraq as “Al Qaeda.” Most reporters have not asked whether this is propaganda coming from the Bush administration for reasons of domestic politics.
Blogger Jane Stillwater, embedded in the Green Zone last April, may have been the first to spot the trend:
The insurgents around here are all now called “Al Qaeda†so that Americans will obediently start thinking that our troops are now fighting the dudes who allegedly blew up the World Trade Center.
Yesterday, McClatchy correspondent Jonathan Landay noted a surge of Al Qaeda references by the military: 33 times in a barrage of news releases over the last seven days.
Apparently, this was preparation for President Bush’s latest speech at the Naval War College, which referenced Al Qaeda 27 times (emphasis added):
Iraqis are beginning to understand that al Qaeda is the main enemy for Shia, Sunni, and Kurds alike. Al Qaeda is responsible for the most sensational killings in Iraq. They’re responsible for the sensational killing on U.S. soil, and they’re responsible for the sensational killings in Iraq. Here at home, we see the bloody aftermath of a suicide bombing in an Iraqi market — and we wonder what kind of people could do that. That’s what we wonder. We’re good-hearted people. Our commanders tell me that 80 to 90 percent of these suicide bombings are the work of foreign fighters, people who don’t like the advance of an alternative to their ideology, and they come in and murder the innocent to achieve their objectives.
And that’s their strategy. Al Qaeda’s strategy is to use human beings as bombs to create grisly images for the world to see. They understand that sensational images are the best way to overwhelm the quiet progress on the ground. They aim to cultivate a sense of despair about the future of a free Iraq. They hope to gain by the television screen what they cannot gain on the battlefield against U.S. and Iraqi forces.
On Wednesday, Major General John Batiste warned Congress that it’s inaccurate to attribute all the violence in Iraq to Al Qaeda, and this could lead to major strategic errors. Batiste said the current effort in Iraq is “destroying our military, with little to show for it” and pointed out that Al Qaeda is more of a threat outside of Iraq.
The real story, from Jonathan Landay:
Iraqis with ties to al Qaida are only a small fraction of the threat to American troops. The group known as al Qaida in Iraq didn’t exist before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, didn’t pledge its loyalty to al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden until October 2004 and isn’t controlled by bin Laden or his top aides.
Landay is one of the few professional journalists who are honest enough to set the record straight instead of simply repeating Bush’s propaganda.
UPDATE: Malcolm Nance on Small Wars Journal has an excellent discussion of who is really leading the fight against the Iraq occupation. Nance has also written a book, The Terrorists of Iraq: Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency.
