Man, Where to Begin? Zarqawi's Many Deaths? My Few Spare Minutes?

I'm now in the second full week of my new temp gig, which is fine--they've told me they want me to stay on until the fall--which I said I was OK with, but I'm not. After so long finding alternative sources for money the traditional route is really putting me to sleep. I don't fault any of my fellow cube-dwellers out there for not being as fussy about their job as I. I piss off easily and I bore easily.

However, I still manage to sneak in a few glances at the news throughout my days data-entering. One thing I read about was Bush's surprise visit to Iraq. What a stunt!

Man, we Americans are idiots--or at least, that's what the Bush Administration must think of us. Back on Monday [http://thepete.com/fun-with-the-usg-al-zarqawi-and-themedia/|I blogged about Zarqawi] and how he is being used, even now, by the Bush Admin to enhance their standing in the eyes of Americans.

The funny thing is that in that blog post of mine, I link to [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4446084/|an article from 2004] at MSNBC.com that reports on reports of Zarqawi's death--please note that the article was posted back in 2004. Now, it's also important to note that there are certain correlations between that story from two years ago and the Zarqawi of today and even a few weeks ago.

Now, before I run a clip from that article, I want to point out that for months the US Mil, the media and the USG have been trying to sell this whole "sectarian violence" thing in Iraq. They keep pumping up the idea that it's an all out Sunni Vs. Shia Muslim Civil War right now.

However, I've heard many Iraqi civilians admit to there being no great animosity between the two sects of Islam. There are even numerous examples of intersectual marriage. (You like that word? "Intersectual"?) Yet still the stories of sectarian violence persist.

Other stories that persist surround Zarqawi. Many say he was an "evil" man and a savage and all that. Meanwhile many others say he was just a CIA stooge, like Noriega, Pinochet, or even Saddam, by some estimates. The point is that Zarq was such the perfect badguy for the Bush Admin that many began to think that he was a little too perfect. Now check out a clip from that AP.org [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4446084/|article] from 2004:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq “during the American bombing there,” according to a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the “Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen.”

...

The statement did not say when al-Zarqawi was supposedly killed, but U.S. jets bombed strongholds of the extremist Ansar al-Islam in the north last April as Saddam Hussein’s regime was collapsing.

It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of his artificial leg.

Before the Iraq conflict began last March, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said al-Zarqawi received hospital treatment in Baghdad after fleeing Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence sources said he apparently was fitted with an artificial leg.

The statement said the “fabricated al-Zarqawi memo” has been used by the U.S.-run coalition “to back up their theory of a civil war” in Iraq.

So, the total badass that the US mil couldn't catch was a one-legged man? Like Osama's kidney problems, Zarq's one-leggedness didn't seem to slow him down much. Hell, he was even able to survive for 2 more years only to narrowly fall short of escaping a ton of US bombage falling on him.

Also: even two years ago, his supposed followers were suggesting he was being used as a tool by the US--that the USG's claim that Zarq was trying to cause a civil war was something the USG made up. Then, check this other bit from that article:

“The truth is, al-Qaida is not present in Iraq,” the Mujahedeen statement said. Though many Arabs entered the country to fight U.S. troops, only a small number remain, the group said.

This totally fits with other stuff [http://thepete.com/iraqi-insurgents-not-al-qaeda/|I've blogged about], too. I've read that US Mil experts, themselves, have said that they've found a very small number of foreign fighters in Iraq. So, it may very well be that the USG is just trumping up all of this to first make us feel threatened and second to make us feel victorious.

I mean, why would there be a statement from people claiming to be Zarq's followers saying he was dead and that the US was lying about him unless the USG really was? Were they just doing it to discredit the USG? Seems like the USG has already done plenty to do that on their own.

While I never believe anything 100%, I do believe there's more to learn regarding this angle of the Iraquagmire.

I'm reminded of Orwell's 1984 once again and how Big Brother created an enemy for the people to be afraid of.

Well, back to being tired. I hope to return to regular blogging once I build up a tolerance for brain-deadening data entry work. I'm consistently amazed at how a crappy dayjob is able to suck so much energy out of your soul despite the fact that you're just sitting there at a computer all day long...