|
|
|---|
|
American Politics Journal Atrios Barry Crimmins Betty Bowers Buzzflash Consortium News Daily Howler Daily Kos Democatic Underground Disinfotainment Today Evil GOP Bastards Faux News Channel Greg Palast The Hollywood Liberal Internet Weekly Jesus General Joe Conason Josh Marshall Liberal Oasis Make Them Accountable Mark Morford Mike Malloy Political Humor - About.com Political Wire Randi Rhodes Rude Pundit Smirking Chimp Take Back the Media Whitehouse.org More Links |
The Local View of Zarqawi...
So 'Zarqawi' is finally dead. It was an interesting
piece of news that greeted us yesterday morning
(or was it the day before? I've lost track of
time…). I didn't bother with the pictures and film they
showed of him because I, personally, have been
saturated with images of broken, bleeding bodies.
The reactions have been different. There's a general
consensus amongst family and friends that he
won't be missed, whoever he is. There is also
doubt- who was he really? Did he even exist?
Was he truly the huge terror the Americans made
him out to be? When did he actually die?
People swear he was dead back in 2003… The timing
is extremely suspicious: just when people
were getting really fed up with the useless Iraqi
government, Zarqawi is killed and Maliki is hailed
the victorious leader of the occupied world!
(And no- Iraqis aren't celebrating in the streets- worries
over electricity, water, death squads, tests,
corpses and extremists in high places prevail right now.)
I've been listening to reactions- mostly from
pro-war politicians and the naïveté they reveal is astounding.
Maliki (the current Iraqi PM) was almost giddy
as he made the news public (he had even gone the extra
mile and shaved!). Do they really believe it
will end the resistance against occupation? As long as foreign
troops are in Iraq, resistance or 'insurgency'
will continue- why is that SO difficult to understand?
How is that concept a foreign one?
"A new day for Iraqis" is the current theme of
the Iraqi puppet government and the Americans.
Like it was "A New Day for Iraqis" on April 9,
2003 . And it was "A New Day for Iraqis" when they
killed Oday and Qusay. Another "New Day for Iraqis"
when they caught Saddam. More "New Day"
when they drafted the constitution… I'm beginning
to think it's like one of those questions they give you
on IQ tests: If 'New' is equal to 'More' and
'Day' is equal to 'Suffering', what does "New Day for Iraqis" mean?
How do I feel? To hell with Zarqawi (or Zayrkawi
as Bush calls him). He was an American creation -
he came along with them- they don't need him
anymore, apparently. His influence was greatly exaggerated
but he was the justification for every single
family they killed through military strikes and troops. It was WMD
at first, then it was Saddam, then it was Zarqawi.
Who will it be now? Who will be the new excuse for killing
and detaining Iraqis? Or is it that an excuse
is no longer needed- they have freedom to do what they want.
The slaughter in Haditha months ago proved that.
"They don't need him anymore," our elderly neighbor
waved the news away like he was shooing flies,
"They have fifty Zarqawis in government."
So now that Zarqawi is dead, and because according
to Bush and our Iraqi puppets he was behind so
much of Iraq's misery- things should get better,
right? The car bombs should lessen, the ethnic cleansing
will come to a halt, military strikes and sieges
will die down… That's what we were promised, wasn't it?
That sounds good to me. Now- who do they have
to kill to stop the Ministry of Interior death squads,
and trigger-happy foreign troops?