Left discovers al Qaeda in Iraq, thinks its propaganda

Confederate Yankee:

Glenn Wilson McEllensburg has suddenly become a terrorism expert, and can't wait to get a conspiracy off his chest:

Josh Marshall publishes an e-mail from a reader who identifies what is one of the most astonishing instances of mindless, pro-government "reporting" yet:

It's a curious thing that, over the past 10 - 12 days, the news from Iraq refers to the combatants there as "al-Qaida" fighters. When did that happen?

Until a few days ago, the combatants in Iraq were "insurgents" or they were referred to as "Sunni" or "Shia'a" fighters in the Iraq Civil War. Suddenly, without evidence, without proof, without any semblance of fact, the US military command is referring to these combatants as "al-Qaida".

Welcome to the latest in Iraq propaganda.

That the Bush administration, and specifically its military commanders, decided to begin using the term "Al Qaeda" to designate "anyone and everyeone we fight against or kill in Iraq" is obvious. All of a sudden, every time one of the top military commanders describes our latest operations or quantifies how many we killed, the enemy is referred to, almost exclusively now, as "Al Qaeda."

Actually, that isn't obvious, Glenn. What is obvious is your own industrial-strength ignorance, which apparently seems to be quite contagious among the more irrational actors of the far left.

The reason that we've been reading more over the past few days about attacks directed against al Qaeda—more than Sunni insurgents, more than Shia militiamen—is that elements of al Qaeda have been specifically targeted by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala Province, in Operation Commando Eagle southwest of Baghdad, Operation Marne Torch southeast of Baghdad, and in other operations throughout the country.

...

The military has always broken enemy groups in Iraq into several groups one of which is al Qaeda. There is also the Former Regime Elements (the FREs), the Iraqi rejectionist, made up of many of the tribal leaders who are now joining us in fighting al Qaeda. and there were two competing groups of Shia militias. The Iraqi rejectionist are the most interesting group right now and appear to be willing to cross over to work with the US to rid Iraq of al Qaeda which has clearly lost the hearts and mind battle. The FREs are a shrinking group of thugs who have continued to try to intimidate the Shia and the Kurds through murder and mayhem.

By denying the reality of al Qaeda's presence in Iraq, the left and its supporters in Congress should be losing credibility and that may be why they are coming up with this latest piece of paranoia. It is hard out there when the real world intrudes on your illusions. Are as Nancy Pelosi would say, it is sad.