zarqawi doesnt exist

Billmon went to see Juan Cole speak. he reports:

If you're also a steady reader of Informed Comment, Dr. Cole didn't say much you don't know already. But he did explore one intriguing theory that I hadn't heard before, which is the possibility that all of the players in this bloody game -- and not just the Cheney administration -- may be perpetuating the myth that the Iraq insurgency is now largely controlled by the diabolical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his band of fanatical fundamentalist fighters, Al Qaeda in Iraq.

This would not only mean that American forces have been on a wild goose chase (in which approximately 10,538 of Zarqawi's "senior lieutenants" have been captured so far) but that both the Cheney administration and the real masterminds of the insurgency are selling the same fraud -- as are our "allies" in Baghdad.

What's more, each party knows that the others know, and they each know that the others know that they know, and so on. The only ones left outside this loop of knowledge are the poor saps doing the chasing, and of course the folks back home. And even they may be beginning to suspect something.

Juan Cole doesn't claim that Zarqawi and his group are complete fictions, although the "Al Qaeda in Iraq" label appears to be a flagrant violation of Bin Ladin's intellectual property rights, possibly perpetuated by some Internet wannabes who don't have any connection to either crew. But Cole does make the case that the strength and influence of "foreign fighters" in Iraq has been even more exaggerated than I assumed, and that the key underground networks sustaining the insurgency are all probably run by remnants of the old Ba'ath security services.

[snip]

It's easy to understand why the Cheney administration would want to hype the "foreign fighter" threat -- both to maintain public support for the "central front in the war against terrorism," and to obscure the fact that the Ba'athist "dead enders" supposedly consigned to the garbage can of history two years ago instead have shown a remarkable staying power.

[snip]

So you end up with a peculiar result: Everyone has set up the same straw man, in order to deny what would otherwise be obvious: The war in Iraq is a civil war, one that has relatively little to do with the war on terrorism, but that has almost half of the U.S. Army bogged down in the middle of it.

as you know, ive been saying for 2 years that zarqawi doesnt exist. i think Juan Cole is slowly coming to this realisation as well - i remember only 6 (?) months ago i made fun of juan cole because he seemed to assume that Zarqawi existed. It has only been the last couple of months when he has mentioned his doubts that the zarqawi-boogey-monster might not be ten-feet-tall.

of course, it doesnt really matter whether zarq is dead, or a mild-mannered accountant, or one of 1,000,000 fighters in iraq. he effectively doesnt exist. and EVERY TIME someone in the maladministration:

• 'finds' a letter addressed to or from zarqawi, and
• reports on an audio statement by zarqawi,
• claims that zarqawi has unheaded someone (cf nick berg)

THEY ARE LYING. KNOWINGLY. AGAIN. AND AGAIN.