Military Promotes Zarqawi to U.S. Public

Glancing through this morning's Boston Globe, I found this explosive tidbit:

For the past two years, US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US Home Audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.

This can hardly come as a great surprise to anyone following the course of the occupation. However, this is the first solid evidence of the US's strategy that I'm aware of. Journalists like Robert Fisk and Dahr Jamail have been questioning whether Zarqawi is even alive for quite some time. Casting a murderous lunatic like Zarqawi in the role of villain is a well-worn strategy of the US government when it's looking to justify some military adventure. It's important that the American public identify the Iraqi resistance forces with sectarian violence and bombings of civilians rather than a struggle against foreign occupying forces that might inevitably lead to comparisons with our own revolutionary war.
[Thomas E. Ricks, "US seen boosting Zarqawi's profile," Washington Post, April 10, 2006]
Tags:[Iraq, Zarqawi, propaganda]