Monday, April 10, 2006

The Novelty of "I Told You So" Wears Off Quickly

How many times has your humble correspondent advised that the administration has made way too much of Musab al-Zarqawi and "al Qaeda in Iraq?" Anyone with a passing familiarity with Iraq and middle east politics/terrorism has known for some time that al-Zarqawi is nothing more than a low-level thug prone to blunt violence. He reveled in his own self-aggrandizing claim of being "al-Qaeda in Iraq" and we knew that our simian boy king was grossly exploiting this small-time criminal by promoting him to an leadership position in "terror" so he could say "al-Qaeda" and "Iraq" in the same sentence. Hmm...

Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer

The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists. For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.

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