Napoleoni, the author of "Insurgent Iraq," told reporters last week that Powell's argument falsely exploited Zarqawi to prove a link between then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. She said that through fabrications of Zarqawi's status, influence and connections "the myth became the reality" -- a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"He became what we wanted him to be. We put him there, not the jihadists," Napoleoni said.
Iraq's most notorious insurgent, Napoleoni argues, accomplished what bin Laden could not: "spread the message of jihad into Iraq."
The myth of al-Zarqawi, Napoleoni believes, helped usher in al-Qaida's "transformation from a small elitist vanguard to a mass movement."
Al-Zarqawi became "the icon" of a new generation of anti-imperialist jihadists, she said.
So Zarqawi was a nobody out on the fringe until Bush came along and made him an icon for the jihadist movement. He shoulda stuck with goin' after Osama bin-Caveman. Thanks a great steamin' pile, Georgie. That's one more fuckup we owe you for.
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