Cartoono's Bane

The Christian Science Monitor story today based on an interview with someone who said he was an IAI gunrunner, was headed "Sunni insurgents still aim to oust US, Shiites." That's nonsensical, misleading, and pretty clearly intended to fan the "inevitable civil war" psychosis that is at the core of the continued-occupation argument. You might think it was just a slip, but in the article itself there is this: "One IAI goal is to turn Iraq into a state similar to Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a puritanical form of Sunni Islam", another stunning piece of wartime propaganda. The political views of the resistance factions are worth studying if anyone could do so, and they range on a spectrum from secular to various shades of Islamist. But to say that IAI = Saudi Arabia, without any justification, and without any mention of the range of political views in the Sunni resistance, is like saying, as in fact they did in the headline, that the IAI wants to "oust Shiites from Iraq": it is pure scare-propaganda. It sounds to me as if they have gotten themselves a government-controlled editorial function over there at that progressive institution, something that will be worth paying attention to.

Those rigidly nonsectarian Sunnapologist gentry at Mu’ámara Junction, who offer to guide ignorant Occidentals through all the chickentracks of the native press, cannot really be unaware that in lesser journalisms stories have been known to appear with headlines that suggest some editor did not trouble to read what she was labeling. It looks to me, Mr. Bones, as if they have got themselves into a wannabe-government-censorial mode over there....

But seriously, sir, the real reason why Dr. Cartoonoclastes finds that piece displeasing and resolves to twistify it to death is not far to seek: Mr. Dagher has noticed and spoken about the extraordinary disintegration of the former Sunní Ascendancy in ex-Iraq:

... IAI continues to have a loose affiliation with other factions that share its outlook, such as Muhammad's Army, the Rashideen Army, and Mujahedeen Army. The IAI's website also mentions a strand of Ansar al-Sunna, which has been linked to Al Qaeda in the past, as an additional ally. Adding to the complexity is the role of former regime figures. Abu Abdullah says Rashideen is strongly backed by Ahmed al-Douri.... Even Sunni Arab parties at the core of the US-backed political process, such as the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, are ambivalent .....

The total nakedness of Humpty-Dumpty's fragmentation is not disclosed, of course. Even fishwrap customers who can put up with Mary Baker Eddy would not be able to put up with that wilderness of factions and factionettes and factionoids, but the general idea of the smash-up is, for once, conveyed. Cartoono dearly wishes that once should be the end of such impudent subversion, and he may get his wish, though that is scarcely the same thing as gaining his ends.

Ms. Editor's headline might be challenged, but the exercise would be pointless if Cartoono is permitted to rewrite it first. She said "In Iraq, Sunni insurgents still aim to oust U.S., Shiites / In an interview, a member of the Islamic Army of Iraq speaks of his group's long-term goals." He said "That the IAI wants to 'oust Shiites from Iraq' [is] pure scare-propaganda." Needless to say, Mr. Bones, now that you have examined the evidence, "oust" will do well enough if understood with forked ear: the militant extremist Republicans are to be kicked all the way out of the country, the heretics and hillbillies are only to be kicked out of power and restored to that state of Bint-Yeorian dhimmitudo that has traditionally become them so well.

When it comes to the Wahhábí horse, Ms. Editor is blameless and Mr. Dagher maybe deserves a slap on the wrist. There can not be half a dozen faith-crazies in the Islamic Army of Iraq (or in any other smithereen of TwentyPercenterdom) who want to redecorate the former Iraq to match the current Sa‘údiyya. I should guess that "Abú ‘Abdalláh" described his notion of the IAI's notion of Utopia, and then Mr. Dagher decided unilaterally that the radiant vision seemed a lot like you-know-where. Xian Scientologists have some antecedent idea of the Great Cardboard Kingdom, after all, whereas a purist expression like "salafí theocracy" might not convey very much to them.

Naturally poor AA himself must have had nothing to do with sheer tripe like Cartoono's "IAI = Saudi Arabia." And poor is AA indeed, after getting an honourary demotion from "former Iraqi military officer who was briefly jailed during Saddam Hussein's rule for his Islamic sympathies" to "gunrunner"!

(Oh, well, Mr. Bones, when you don't like the message getting out, why not shoot the messenger a little?)

Mu’ámara Junction being what it is, disappointment would have ensued if "that progressive institution," the Christian Science Monitor, had not been accused of selling out to psychosis-fanners.

Disappointment has not ensued. O lucky us!