Up to now, the US involvement in the killing has been effectively concealed by the media. The blame for the sectarian violence has been adroitly shifted to alleged terrorist mastermind, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. But the evidence shows that Zarqawis role and the role of foreign fighters has actually been very small and has nothing to do with the thousands of dead men who are turning up every day around Bagdad. That is the work of the death squads which operate out of the Interior Ministry.
Once again, the media is covering the facts and creating a narrative that absolves the administration of culpability. Unfortunately, most leftist web sites seem more eager to debate whether Zarqawi actually existed or not. This debate goes nowhere. What is imperative is to realize that Zarqawi has become more important to the Bush administration dead than alive. The media has taken the shadowy details of his life and shaped them into a storyline that is supposed to rewrite the history of the war in Iraq. Zarqawi is now being held responsible for everything from initiating the sectarian violence to stopping the political dialogue between Sunni leaders and the new government.
Last night on The Jim Lehrer News Hour, news-anchor Margaret Warner interviewed American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. Both Khalilzad and Warner agreed that Zarqawi was the main obstacle to achieving peace in Iraq. Warner, who is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), even implied that Zarqawi had blocked the political process from going forward by frustrating opportunities for dialogue.
This is pure fiction and is clearly intended to mislead the American people. Zarqawis role is minor, at best. He has had no effect on the political process or backchannel negotiations. The reason there has been no dialogue between the warring parties is because Rumsfeld has stubbornly refused to negotiate with the resistance; preferring violence to the exclusion of any other option.
The media is now using Zarqawi in the same way that Israel used Arafat; by creating a straw man who is supposed to be the obstacle to peace. The recalcitrant Israeli leadership has never made any concessions since Arafats death; neither has Rumsfeld. This new fairytale (that Iraqs troubles derive from Zarqawi) was picked up later in the show by The News Hours resident neocon, David Brooks.
The things that (Zarqawi) introduced to this war was, first, the understanding that you could build on aspects of racial superiority to really stir up a sectarian war between the Shia and the Sunni, he really self-consciously tried to set that off and very successfully did set that off.
And then the second thing was the awareness that, with a certain sort of really horrible killing, you could destroy a civil society, make violence pervasive. And so, his death doesn't end the violence. He set off forces which now are rampant in Iraqi society.
We can expect that Brooks analysis will be echoed throughout the press; revising Americas bloody history in Iraq and shunting the blame off onto the inconsequential Zarqawi.
The destruction of Iraqi civil society (as Brooks says) has nothing to do with racial superiority, cycles of violence or foreign terrorists. It is entirely the result of an illegal invasion, a brutal occupation, and a deliberate campaign of terror organized and executed by American intelligence agencies.
On May 4, 2006 Congressman Dennis Kucinich gave a speech on the floor of the House which articulated the root causes for the massive violence in Iraq. He clearly linked the Bush administration to the death squads in Iraq. Reading from a long list of newspaper articles he had compiled, Kucinich provided a detailed account of Americas disturbing undercover war. Naturally, his speech was shunned by the major media and consigned to the memory hole. Never the less, it outlines the extent of Americas complicity in the ongoing slaughter and asks us to question whether any additional involvement can be morally justified.
Kucinichs speech was framed in the context of 2 letters which he delivered to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and President George Bush. His comments are entered below:
April 5, 2006
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld:
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