Score on Terror

This week was a bittersweet PR concoction for the WAT. The latest in the battle to capture a few more points in the likeability polls. Unfortunately, it's not easy to rebuild meager credibility.

First, they tried to convince us that great advances had been made in Iraq thanks to the killing of a terrorist who happened to have no allies beyond the handful of people who died along with him in the US raid on his bunker. Zarqawi, as we've been reminded of thanks to the UK Independent's coverage, was a man whose terrorism career was actually given a boost in February of 2003 when then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his name at that infamous wmd UN speech, ultimately helping him to join Al Qaeda which he had previously not been a member of. Things went sour between him and Al Qaeda though after he started plotting the deaths of Muslims (he just didn't like those Shiites). So, the US basically killed someone who, in a way, was merely helping them out in Iraq.

Next, we stumbled across the latest presidential headline from the US where the leading news of the day is that Herr Bushmeister has "expressed serious concern" over the suicides of 3 Gitmo inmates. That was the 'we are humane' part of the PR. The 'don't let the terrorists fool you' part of the PR is that top US officials in the government and Pentagon are saying that the suicides were "a good PR move to draw attention" (isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?) and, as always, to add a little xenophobia into the propaganda, "a tactic to further the jihadi cause."

Hmmm....you snatch over 400 people from their homes, transport them halfway across the world, all the while mentally and physically abusing them, then imprison them in a maximum security cage on an island floating lawlessly in the sea, and finally never ever tell them why they are there and when they'll get out. Yup, must be military cunning that led these men to take their lives. That or a desperate attempt to escape a tortuous existence. Bets anyone?