The Myth of al-Qaeda Now Recognized by Corporate Media
It's interesting to note that, at long last, the mainstream media is hinting that the words â€˜al Qaeda' has simplistically become a metaphor for those that are fighting the US in Iraq and elsewhere and that â€˜al Qaeda' is not, as they have pushed for years, a specific organisation that is led and organised by the equally metaphoric and very dead â€˜Osama bin Laden'.
Michael Cooper and Larry Rohter of â€˜The New York Times' today wrote: "As he campaigns with the weight of a deeply unpopular war on his shoulders, Senator John McCain of Arizona frequently uses the shorthand "Al Qaeda" to describe the enemy in Iraq in pressing to stay the course in the war there." It's a step in the right direction for the mainstream media to at last concede that â€˜al Qaeda' is indeed merely â€˜shorthand' for those that battle against US occupiers of various countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
In much the same way as the Americans invoked the words â€˜al Qaeda' to denote those that raise their hands against them in defense of their lands, the Israelis today refer to all Palestinians that are fighting for their lands back as â€˜terrorists'. The Israelis tried for a while to cast Palestinian fighters into the â€˜al Qaeda' mould but it was quickly revealed that those the Israelis â€˜captured' turned out to be Israeli intelligence patsies. They have occasionally tried it on since but haven't of late been silly enough to actually insist that â€˜al Qaeda' is active with Palestinian fighters.