Blood Libel

Okay, Andy, I'll accept your challenge.  I've read your post and I didn't get upset.  The reason why is obvious.  Your post simply attempts to generate more fear and outrage over a well-worn cry of "wolf".  It's a little trick we call 'blood libel', accusing an enemy (real or imagined) of behavior so heinous that only the truly demented would not be sickened by these acts.

Andy recounts the Michael YAWN tale of how Al Qaeda is barbecuing babies to feed to their mommas.  Small wonder indeed that such tales would arise in the part of the world that suggested that the Jews were baking their bread to tasty goodness with the blood of Palestinian children.  At heart, the tale as told makes little sense.  As the story goes, Al Qaeda is attempting to recruit in Iraq by serving people the long-pork of their progeny?  Uhhh, doubtful.  The consistent effort of supporters for the global war on anything Muslim and icky and terrorific has been to show how stupid the enemy is, while promoting the dangers that they pose.  Besides being counter-productive to actual safety measures, that effort is kinda goofy on it's face.  They were smart enough to do very real things that were very terrible.  We've no need to posit that they have a fetish for kid-on-a-stick to defend against them.  Unless ...

There is a combined effort at subterfuge.  Blood Libels such as this aren't just to make us hate Al Qaeda more (is that actually possible?) , but to make the ignorant claim that Al Qaeda is *the* enemy we face in Iraq.  Al Qaeda is only one peril we face in Iraq, and what can be gleaned from Yon's fantastical narrative is that the Iraqis hate and fear them as much as we do.  Well no kidding.  But if we want to stay in Iraq, and keep shooting people, then the people we shoot had better be 'the enemy', right?  Hence, they are all Al Qaeda now.  And the blood libel simply justifies what can't and shouldn't be justified, that we are killing simply because we have bullets left, and the enemy is a monster too horrific to even understand.  It kinda goes without saying (though I will anyway) that this is poor propaganda, geared more towards genocide than any realistic  defense of freedoms and values.

Andy is down with that, apparently.  Check this quote:

This, along with their (al Qaeda) beheadings and Saddam's evil atrocities is not reason enough to wipe these monsters out? I'm sure most of the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Pilots fighting in Iraq right now would love to kill one of these al Qaedas.

Emphasis is mine.  Notice, Saddam was not Al Qaeda, and was in fact an enemy of their goals.  But Andy has no difficulty lumping him and his dictatorial atrocities in with the blood libel he promotes.  "Kill 'em all" he cries, much as he posits that our soldiers wish and want to do.  It doesn't matter who or what anymore; all that matters is that they are monsters that feed child-shank to weeping parents ... who the very next day may be Al Qaeda as well, in our jaundiced eyes.

And witness this marvelous slight of hand:

Most importantly, these are the people we will leave to take over Iraq and attack the US if we leave and pull out before the job is done.

There is no evidence of this possibility at all.  If fact, there's rather more evidence that the Shia majority will purge Al Qaeda from Iraq as they  put the Sunni and Bathists under the boot when we leave.  But let's not let reality get in the way of a good terror fantasy.  Remember, to the blindly supportive of security mom mentality, they are all Al Qaeda now.

Jack the blogger, over at the Western Word, ponders why it is taking so very long to train the Iraqi military. 

The most interesting thing that this shows is that although we can train our military to fight, on average in about 8 weeks, the training of Iraq’s military continues into its fifth year…What’s up with that?

Let me spit out a possible answer:  their goals for training aren't the same as ours?   It's really very simple.  If they don't want to be trained to follow our objectives, then it is simply pointless for us to train them.  I'm certain that most of them know how to shoot, and how to polish their boots.  It's the bending to American occupation I think they're having a devil of a time with.  They are not our servants, and they didn't sign up to the US military.  Iraq is a nation divided, upon sectarian and religious grounds.  And here's a hint, I don't think their training is facilitated by the idea that they are all Al Qaeda now.

Comments

[GeeGuy]

Isn't truth a defense to an allegation of defamation?

With all due respect, is there some suggestion somewhere, other than your not altogether unreasonable incredulity, that what Yon reports is false?

[Wulfgar]

I think the point more salient is whether or not Yon reports the truth. If he does, what he is really reporting is that Iraqis fear and hate Al Qaeda ... and that's all to the good.

Whether or not Al Qaeda is fostering cannibalism is moot. They are the enemy, regardless. The only reason to promote stories of these horrors is to continue attacks against any that might be complicit in them. And the Iraqis obviously aren't.

[209.97.206.148]

I thought all the cannibals were homos living in Germany?

Anyway, I know you will agree that the Jews invented circumcision. But did you also know that they invented fried pork rinds?