Friday, June 09, 2006

"PHILLIPS: First reaction to the capture of Zarqawi. From what I understand, you think we're going a bit overboard with this coverage and he's not as big a fish as everyone is making him out to be?
ROSEN: He certainly was a symbol. However, Zarqawi was, in a way -- the myth of Zarqawi was an American creation. In the beginning of the insurgency, the American's government, the American military, wanted to create the impression that the insurgency was foreign- dominated, was not a popular Iraqi movement. So they blamed almost every attack on Zarqawi, creating this myth of Zarqawi that then encouraged Arabs throughout the region to go join his cause.
But, in truth, Zarqawi and his group of foreign fighters were a very small proportion of the resistance of the insurgency. They were, of course, responsible for some terrible attacks. But the dynamics in Iraq and the civil war is going to persist no matter who is killed, because this is
conflict between the Shia government, the Shia population, and the Sunni population at this point." (thanks Nir)