Orwell in Iraq: Snow Jobs, Zarqawi and Bogus Peace Plans
By Dahr Jamail
From: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070306D.shtml
Monday 03 July 2006
"My personal opinion is that the only way we will lose this war is if we pull out prematurely," said Colonel Jeffrey
Snow, who commands a brigade of soldiers in Iraq. Snow, as reported by AFP on June 30th, fears losing public support in
the US for the ongoing occupation of Iraq because of "negative perceptions" at home due to news that is "always bad."
Reuters reported, also on June 30th, Snow admitting that resistance attacks in Baghdad have risen despite the recent
security crackdown that brought tens of thousands of American and Iraqi soldiers, new checkpoints and curfews in the
capital city.
The same Col. Snow, unable (or more likely, unwilling) to provide statistics on the increased number of attacks,
instead used the excuse that the steps the US military took to tell the Iraqi people about the new security measures
kept resistance fighters informed of the military's plans. On that note, it couldn't be more obvious that someone in his
position is there for his ability to follow orders, rather than his aptitude toward the application of logic.
In another dazzling flash of brain activity, Snow, who obviously thinks "war" is a suitable term for the illegal
occupation of Iraq, commented, "We expected there would be an increase in attacks, and that is precisely what's
happened." He also added, "I believe that these attacks are going to go down over time. So I remain optimistic."
Snow is obviously annoyed with the fact that select media outlets continue to report the increasing violence, ongoing
deaths of Iraqi civilians and US soldiers, and th?t the country is, at this point, essentially as devastated as it was
when Hulagu Khan's Mongols sacked Baghdad 748 years ago.
Just three days before the flash of brilliant analysis by Snow, the Iraqi health ministry announced it had received 262
corpses within the previous four days as the result of armed operations all over the country. It also reported that 580
people were injured in the same time period, and did not count people known to have been abducted and murdered but whose
bodies have not yet been found.
But Snow seems to be less concerned with the reality on the ground than he is with public perception of the hell that
Iraq has become. While he admits that his own troops have come under a greater number of resistance attacks, he
preferred to offer his professional critique of media coverage on the failed state of Iraq.
"Our soldiers may be in the crosshairs every day, but it is the American voter who is a real target, and it is the
media that carries the message back each day across the airwaves. So when the news is not balanced and it's always bad,
that clearly leads to negative perceptions back home," said the leader of the 1st Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division,
which has been in Iraq nearly one year.
Determined to leave reporters with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside about the situation in Iraq, as well as to explain his
obvious contradictions, Snow added, "The way I would answer that is that attacks here recently are up in our area.
However, the overall effectiveness is down. So you may perceive that as double-speak."
While Snow was busy contemplating his gifts of double-speak the next day, July 1st, a car bomb attacked a police patrol
in Sadr City, Baghdad, killing at least 62 people and wounding over 100.
With the plan to secure Baghdad, "Operation Forward Together," now three weeks old, and the so-called terror leader in
Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed, the security situation has only continued to deteriorate.
"Killing Zarqawi has not improved the situation in Iraq one bit," said Loretta Napoleoni, Fullbright Scholar at Johns
Hopkins University, author of the books Terror Inc. and Insurgent Iraq. While speaking to an audience in Seville, Spain,
where we both gave lectures about the situation in Iraq this past weekend, the expert about Zarqawi and terror groups
now operating in Iraq added, "In fact, it might well have made things worse. There is evidence to back the claim that
al-Qaeda gave information to the Multi-National Forces about Zarqawi to have him killed, since they had been having
problems with him for quite some time. Thus, killing him may well have strengthened the link between al-Qaeda and Sunni
resistance groups in Iraq."
When I interviewed Napoleoni, she told me that the image of Zarqawi portrayed by Western media outlets was basically
the antithesis of reality. "He [Zarqawi] was not in control of the Sunni resistance. He was in control of a very small
group of jihadists, predominantly foreign fighters. He was extremely unpopular among the other factions of Sunni
resistance fighters. Some of the members of the resistance even tried two times to remove him because he was a negative
political influence."
While talking with Napoleoni I wondered if Col. Snow truly believed his own rhetoric. I asked her what she thought of
the constant assertions in Western corporate media outlets that Zarqawi was the "leader of the Iraqi resistance."
"Well it's not true. It's absolutely not true," she told me, "I don't know what they base these kinds of statements on.
The resistance in Iraq is quite complex, including the Shia factions, and of course al-Zarqawi was not in control of
that. Finally, al-Zarqawi was a foreigner. This is the key element. The Iraqi resistance would never follow a foreigner
as a leader."
Hoping to shed some light on how people like Col. Snow, along with so many US citizens, remain so ignorant about the
reality on the ground in Iraq, I asked Napoleoni, who lectures regularly on the financing of terrorism as well as being
an economist, another question.
Who is actually conducting the terrorism in Iraq? "The majority of the suicide missions are carried out by non-Iraqis.
There are lots of people coming from the Gulf. There is a jihadist web site that lists the names of the martyrs, and you
can see that they come from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and even from the Emirates. This is the majority of the suicide
missions. Some people come from Syria and Jordan, but the vast majority of people come from the Gulf."
So much for ongoing attempts by the Cheney administration to implicate Syria and Iran in collaborating with the Iraqi
resistance. All Cheney needs to do is have his puppet, Mr. Bush, ask his pal, the King of Saudi Arabia, why they are
allowing so many martyrs into Iraq.
Col. Snow take note, because if you really want to know what you are attempting to hide from people in the US, you
should ask Napoleoni. According to her, the reason why Zarqawi and the few terrorist groups operating in Iraq are given
so much media attention is because the Cheney administration "needs to personalize the enemy and needs to have a
dichotomy between good and evil. This has been, very much, the Bush [Cheney] administration's policy right from the
beginning. His [Bush's] first speech after 9/11 was "You are either with us or you are against us." So he clearly stated
there is nothing in between. So al-Zarqawi had to be an evil individual the same way that Saddam Hussein was portrayed
as an evil individual because, you know, there is a moral battle here."
Col. Snow and other gullible US citizens should heed her conclusion about why the myth of Zarqawi was blown so large
and wide. "Of course this [moral battle] is the umbrella under which the economic battle and the hegemonic battles are
taking place," she said.
While we were discussing the US-propagated myth of Zarqawi, I decided to ask Napoleoni to comment on the absurd
statements made by Western corporate media outlets claiming that Zarqawi was in control of Fallujah during the November
2004 massacre in the city.
"Al-Zarqawi was never in control of Fallujah," she told me, "In fact, he was never in Fallujah." As we discussed the
second US assault on Fallujah in depth, she mentioned that negotiations between resistance groups, tribal leaders and
the US military were happening right up to the launching of Operation Phantom Fury against Fallujah.
"The reason why that negotiation failed was because after it was agreed, the Americans basically demanded to have
al-Zarqawi, and of course the people of Fallujah couldn't give him to the Americans because he was not in Fallujah," she
said, confirming what I'd been told by my sources in the city.
Another recent clue as to why resistance attacks against US and Iraqi forces have been on the rise as of late is the
"failed" reconciliation plan put forth by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The vague plan offered by the Shia-dominated puppet government was flawed from the beginning, and when I asked
Napoleoni what she thought of the "plan" she said, "I don't think it is going to work at all. I think it is a window
dressing for the West. I think it is one of these political decisions in order to sell an image to the West saying, "Oh,
the new government in Iraq is actually offering peace. But this peace is going to be rejected; therefore the new
government has no other choice but to continue repressing the people."
She continued, "I don't think there was anything in that proposal that was written in order to bring a deal. Because if
you look at this, it is impossible for any of those groups to accept it. It's too vague, for a start. Also, it basically
prohibits amnesty for anybody who has done any activity motivated by political violence. So of course this was rejected
because there was no way an amnesty is going to be accepted by the Sunni when we are in a situation where the government
is in the hands of the Shia."
There is one thing that Col. Snow said about the US corporate media that he and I agree on. Napoleoni, who worked for
several banks and internation?l organizations in Europe and the US as well as having brought heads of state from around
the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of terror networks, agreed as well.
And that is when Col. Snow told reporters, "It is the American voter who is a real target."
*************
Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spent over 8 months reporting from occupied Iraq. He presented evidence of
US war crimes in Iraq at the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush
Administration in New York City in January 2006. He writes regularly for TruthOut, Inter Press Service, Asia Times and
TomDispatch, and maintains his own web site, dahrjamailiraq.com.