Obama shows the usefulness of the al-Qaeda propaganda myth

Once again the Al Qaeda myth is rolled out to justify the imperialist ventures of the USUK and NATO in Afghanistan. We are reminded that it was Al Qaeda which was behind 911. But where is the evidence to show that it was, let alone that such an organisation really exists?

We know that the term 'Al Qaeda' (or the Database) was coined to describe a motley group of Mujahideen and others on the payroll of the CIA. Are these, then, the same groups that Obama, Brown and Co. refer to? Has the CIA-sponsored Al Qaeda morphed into something else? Or is the CIA now using Al Qaeda as agents provocateurs to justify USUK propaganda and their imperialist activities in the Afghanistan area?

These are all questions that the anti-war movement should be asking. They should have, a long time ago, challenged the warmongers' Al Qaeda myth. But they didn't and they haven't and so give the warmongers an easy ride.

"The current speech shows how useful the al-Qaeda myth remains. Few progressives have the courage or will to challenge the myth, so naturally the corporate media simply passes it on as fact, as self evident as the rising of the sun. A great failure, in my opinion, of war critics. If even the critics of the war machine accept the key propaganda premise, then how can any antiwar movement have a strong foundation?"

So how is it that the critics of the war machine accept the key propaganda premise? Have we become so damned lazy and incompetent that we are incapable of some free thinking? Or is it just fear of challenging 'the experts'?

Robin Cooke, after having resigned his ministerial post in protest at the Blair government's support of the Bushco war, went onto expose Al Qaeda in a speech in the House of Commons. Not long after he met a mysterious death on a hill-walking tour of the Scottish Highlands on Ministry of Defence land.

Is it perhaps a fear of a similar fate that keeps the anti-war people silent?