Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by American troops yesterday in Iraq.
He was
killed by American troops in March 2004 as well.
A muslim cleric says that al-Zarqawi was
killed in 2003 by an American bombing mission.
You can be certain that he will be killed over and over again by our brave American troops in the years to come.
If this all sounds familiar then you probably read George Orwell's 1984 in school.
al-Zarqawi has become a modern-day Emmanel Goldstein.
Goldstein was the renegade and backslider who once, long ago (how long ago, nobody quite remembered), had been one of the leading figures of the Party, almost on a level with Big Brother himself, and then had engaged in counter-revolutionary activities, had been condemned to death, and had mysteriously escaped and disappeared. [...] Somewhere or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps somewhere beyond the sea, under the protection of his foreign paymasters, perhaps even -- so it was occasionally rumoured -- in some hiding-place in Oceania itself.
Orwell's Goldstein character was modeled on a national leader like Trotsky, not some obscure terrorist from Jordan. However, the same propaganda methods are being used here.
...the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State.
Of course I'm not the only one who doubts the existence of al-Zarqawi. Just like
Orwell's Julia didn't believe that Goldstein existed, many middle-east experts doubt the
existence of al-Zarqawi.
Loretta Napoleoni, a terrorism expert and author of "Insurgent Iraq", says that Abu Mus'ab Al Zarqawi, the alleged leader of armed groups in Iraq, is nothing but a myth created by the United States.
Al Zarqawi's myth was born on February 2003, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council the case for war with Iraq, said a United Press International editorial.
Speaking to reporters last week, Napoleoni said that Powell's argument falsely exploited Zarqawi to support a fake link between the toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda network.
She said that through fabrications of Zarqawi, born in October 1966 in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, "the myth became the reality" - a self-fulfilling prophecy, the editorial said.
"He became what we wanted him to be. We put him there, not the Jihadists," Napoleoni said. [...]
The United States has been using the Jordanian born rebel as a shadow to follow in every region inside or outside Iraq where it deems interference in necessary.
"Sometimes it seems no car bomb goes off, no ambush occurs that isn't claimed in his name or attributed to him by the Bush administration. Bush and his top officials have, in fact, made good use of him. Given that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be based on administration lies and manipulations, I begun to wonder if the vaunted Zarqawi even existed," stated an article by Dahr Jamail.
But wait! Isn't this all tinfoil hat theories? No real country would actually
do this sort of thing, right?
Wrong.
Back in the summer of 1954 Britain was occupying the Suez Canal and pressure was building for them to withdraw. Israel, Britain's allie in this mid-east military adventure, opposed that withdrawl. So they launched
Operation Suzannah. "The goal of the Operation was to carry out bombings and other acts of sabotage in Egypt with the aim of creating an atmosphere in which the British and American opponents of British withdrawal from Egypt would be able to gain the upper hand and block the withdrawal."
The bombings caused little damage and no casualties, but once the Israeli agents were caught it evolved in the the 'Levon Affair'. Several Israeli politicians had their careers ended.
Closer to home there was
Operation Northwoods. The operation never actually happened, but the plan "called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war."
The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant: the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism. Goldstein and his heresies will live for ever. Every day, at every moment, they will be defeated, discredited, ridiculed, spat upon and yet they will always survive. This drama that I have played out with you during seven years will be played out over and over again generation after generation, always in subtler forms.
Orwell's future is not ours. Big Brother does not exist.
Quite simply, our government isn't nearly competent enough to carry on this charade for long. One day al-Zarqawi won't rise from the dead, and no one will take his place.