Thursday, June 08, 2006

Further on Zarqawi

Some observations:

1. The phrase, repeated endlessly from Tony Snow, the generals in Iraq, and Preznit Bush: "What the American people need to understand is ..." (or its variations, "What people need to understand is ..."; "You need to understand that ..." and "What you have to realize is that ..." -- implying (at least to my mind) that we don't get it, and it (whatever IT is they would prefer to be the prevailing perception) must be constantly verbally reinforced.

2. CNN had Michael Berg (whose son was beheaded by Zarqawi in Iraq) on several times today, but in one segment, when he began calling for the impeachment of George Bush, he was very abruptly cut off, before he finished his sentence.

3. There was frequent footage of the bombed out house where the 500-lb bombs killed Zarqawi. Piles of rubble and twisted metal, no sign of "the house," just blasted stone and debris. How did Zarqawi's body come out of this so relatively unscathed, so that they were able to retrieve him immediately, clean him up, take identifying photos of his face, take fingerprints, have a DNA sample ready to test and promise the results so quickly? In applying for permanent residence, I had to have my fingerprints taken five times, because they couldn't be "read" due to minor abrasions on the skin on several fingertips. Are we to understand that Zarqawi's fingers were undamaged in the 500-lb bomb blast that obliterated the destroyed house? One reporter said they examined "what was left of him." How very fortunate that two major identifying body parts--his head and his fingers--were not damaged in the blast.

4. It was reported that a woman and child were among those killed in the house where Zarqawi and some high-level Al-Qaeda operatives were staying, but nothing about whose house it was, who was the woman, and how old was the child.

5. Officials appeared miffed at reporters' or viewers' questions about the timing of this positive big news


More on Michael Berg:
Reached by telephone today, Michael Berg said he took no satisfaction in al-Zarqawi's death, condemning it as another event perpetuating the never-ending cycle of violence in Iraq.

"Any loss of life is a tragedy," he said. "This war is based on lies, lies that the Bush administration perpetrated on the world.They told us lies about Iraq, lies about weapons of mass destruction, lies about al Qaeda, lies about 9/11."


Also worth noting this article from just 2 months back:
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.

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