Yesterday I mentioned that McCain might find it easier still to get away with the lies that he tells about Iraq if he could keep some basic stuff, like the difference between Shiite and Sunni straight. He put his ignorance on display when he confused Sunni and Shiite yet again in his questions to Bush’s puppet general.
But embedded it that exchange was a larger deception, one I am convinced is not the result of mere ignorance, but is part of a deliberate, if so far blessedly unsuccessful strategy, the object of which is to scare the American people into supporting this absurd war. McCain got the tame general to say that Al Qaeda in Iraq, be it Sunni or Shiite, was a major threat. He did not clarify what it threatened, but can we assume that it is allegedly a threat to our “goal” of a democratic Iraq.
McCain and his ilk have seized on this group for one reason and one reason only: the bogeyman effect. The group shares a name with Osama bin Laden’s group, so repeating that name is bound to ratchet up the twin emotions of fear and loathing. Never mind that it is a minor player in Iraq, never mind that it lacks support even among Sunnis. Ignore also the fact that its presence in Iraq has been vastly overstated or that it is probably the first group that will be crushed by whoever takes over after we leave.
It is sufficient for McCain that he can use the term “Al Qaeda”, implicitly reinforcing the discredited connection between Iraq and Osama bin Laden. Since this is McCain, his inability to separate Shiite from Sunni garners whatever negative media attention he might get. The fact that he, along with Petreaus, Bush and the usual cast of crazies (including St. Joe) are pumping up a fringe group, gets no media attention at all. The importance of Al Qaeda in Iraq is one of those articles of faith which cannot be questioned, like the oft repeated but untrue assertion that the world is better off without Saddam in Iraq. Constant repetition doesn’t make something true, but it can make it truthy, and that’s all that matters.
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