Meet the new enemy, same as the old enemy. Under the happy-talk headline "Other Attacks Averted in Iraq, a General Says" (which is itself, bizarrely, placed beneath a disturbing photograph of the fully stretched-out body of one of Tuesday's bombing victims being washed for burial—go to Neela Banerjee's story and click in the Multimedia box if you want to see the full, gruesome photo essay), Dexter Filkins and Eric Schmitt give us the official word that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is poppin' out all over:

In Washington, appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, the commander, Gen. John P. Abizaid, said raids by American Special Operations forces and efforts by the Iraqi police against militants associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had thwarted a major attack in Basra and car bombs in Karbala and Baghdad, where suicide bombers struck during Shiite religious celebrations on Tuesday.

Mr. Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is suspected by American officials of involvement in several lethal terrorist attacks in Iraq. American officials said they had no hard evidence that he was behind the attacks on Tuesday, though General Abizaid said he suspected that he was. In January, American officials obtained a letter they say was from Mr. Zarqawi that outlined plans to provoke a "sectarian war" against the Shiites, who are in the majority in Iraq.

That "sectarian war" letter sure is popular with the military boys, isn't it? [One wonders whether the Times will take any notice of this NBC news story, from Salon's War Room, claiming that the Bush administration refused several chances to destroy Zarqawi's operation before the Iraq war because it would have undercut the anti-Saddam case. (Josh Marshall posts usefully at TPM about the logic of this.)]

The point is that Zarqawi is the current, officially designated proxy bogeyman for the Wanted-Dead-Or-Alive-One Whose Name Is Never Mentioned—no matter how much of a stretch it is to maintain Zarqawi as a bin Laden cutout. And it's nice to know that in the face of as many as 275 dead in the Tuesday attacks, the heightening of ethnic tension in Iraq, and the prospect of more violence to come, our warriors haven't forgotten their talking points:

In his statement on Wednesday, [L. Paul] Bremer said it was "increasingly apparent that a large part of this terrorism comes from outside the country." That was echoed by Iraqi officials and by officials in Washington. ... Senior American officials had pointed on Tuesday at Mr. Zarqawi as the main suspect in the attacks, a suspicion that General Abizaid amplified Wednesday. "The level of organization and the desire to cause casualties among innocent worshipers is a clear hallmark of the Zarqawi network, and we have intelligence that ties Zarqawi to this attack," he said. Speaking to reporters after the hearing, General Abizaid added, "I personally believe there is no doubt that Zarqawi is behind this."

Way to keep that al-Qaeda-in-Iraq flag flying, boys! It may be tattered, but if you can earn Dear Leader any points by holding it aloft, well, by God, you've done your job.

posted by michael  6:11:18 PM  
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Concussed. No, not actually. On the other hand, a ceiling tile did crash down on my head rather suddenly yesterday afternoon during a hallway discussion, and left me with a massive headache, now thankfully subsiding. I suspect that the tile dislodgement was the work of my nefarious Republican enemies—the discussion, after all, was about progressive politics. (I work for an ad agency, where I'm normally the Web software guy. As it happens, we're pitching a significant campaign focused on moving progressivism—thought of as a political tendency or identity—into mainstream discourse. I probably shouldn't say any more than that about it for the time being. Anyway, in spite of being tech boy here, I'm serving as our strategist for the pitch because I'm such a big big leftist. Possibly the only time in my life when having a training in Marxist theory will prove a business advantage.)

This is by way of apologizing in advance to my literally dozen of readers if posting here is light for the next few days. I'm going to try to keep a daily schedule, but the pitch work is moving into high gear and I may not be able to. That, plus the fact that I have to keep stuffing my brains back into that new soft place in my skull ...

posted by michael  9:27:34 AM  
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