War spinners won’t let truth stand in the way of a good story

By Mike Seccombe, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 February 2003

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.

Can there be anyone in the English-speaking world who has not yet been emailed a copy of this clever little ditty, which can be sung to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It?

In its six verses it cynically suggests the war on Iraq is being engineered by President George Bush and his fellow travellers to make people forget about their abject failure to find the real international terrorist threat, Osama bin Laden.

But they’ve found him now—or rather, he’s found them—and, dear oh dear, has it created problems for the war-urgers of the West, or what?

For bin Laden’s latest message, delivered via the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network, shows that if there is one person who wants a war on Iraq more than Bush, it’s Osama bin Laden.

In his 1500-word rant he urges true Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere to act, incite, mobilise ... in order to break free from the slavery of these tyrannic and apostate regimes. Not in support of the infidel Saddam but for Islam and the jihad.

Bin Laden leaves no doubt that he agrees with opponents of war in the West, that an invasion of Iraq will radicalise Muslims in that country and elsewhere.

So, how are the spin-doctors of the pro-war brigade dealing with this? Not very competently.

Here’s a taste, from Alexander Downer’s answer to a question on the subject in Parliament yesterday.

It is often said, and understandably so, that Saddam Hussein is a secularist or socialist [while] Osama bin Laden is obviously a religious fanatic ... so it is argued from time to time that those two ideologies do not necessarily go together.

But it is also true that if this tape is genuine ... it simply reinforces the view that Osama bin Laden does apply the principle that ’the enemy of my enemy is my friend’.

This therefore enhances the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of a terrorist organisation ... like al-Qaeda.

That’s the Bush line, as espoused by Downer: that this shows bin Laden is prepared to support Saddam in the hope Saddam will pass on those terrible weapons that Western nations—particularly the US—gave him to fight Islamic fundamentalism.

But bin Laden’s message says something quite different. He doesn’t care whether the socialist party and Saddam remain or go. The important thing is that fighters for the jihad keep the ammunitions and weapons.

And he thinks a war is his best chance to get his hands on them.