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Juan Cole on why reports that Bush suggested bombing al-Jazeera aren't as "outlandish" as Scott McClellan and the administration would have you believe, and the potential consequences of such a misguided act (I mean besides the killing of innocent civilian journalists).

Rumsfeld became increasingly exasperated with the channel as the Iraq adventure went bad. In early 2004, according to Fox News, he began equating its news coverage of Iraq with murder: "'We are being hurt by al-Jazeera in the Arab world,' he said. 'There is no question about it. The quality of the journalism is outrageous - inexcusably biased - and there is nothing you can do about it except try to counteract it.' He said it was turning Arabs against the United States. 'You could say it causes the loss of life,' he added. 'It's causing Iraqi people to be killed' by inflaming anti-American passions and encouraging attacks against Iraqis who assist the Americans, he added."

The notion that reporting on the guerrilla war in Iraq abets terrorism is typical of the logic of any extreme right-wing political movement. All censorship by all military regimes in the Middle East has been imposed on the grounds that journalists' speech is dangerous to society and could cause public turmoil (fitna). Rumsfeld's reasoning in this regard would be instantly recognizable to any Arab journalist from their experience with their own governments.

Of course, Rumsfeld did not consider how many lives - tens of thousands - have been lost because of his own inaccurate statements to the American public about Iraq, which he maintained had dangerous weapons of mass destructions and even more dangerous weapons programs. He and Vice President Dick Cheney also alleged an operational connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden that did not exist, implying repeatedly that Saddam was involved in Sept. 11. If speech really is murder, Rumsfeld is the Ted Bundy of governmental officials.

The real source of Rumsfeld's volcanic ire, and Bush's alleged turn as would-be mafia don and war criminal, was the graphic images of the warfare in Iraq that al-Jazeera was willing to display at a time when no major US news source would do so.

The reaction in the Arab world to the Daily Mirror report has been a firestorm of outrage. Some Qataris are calling for the government to end US basing rights in that country. Others are lamenting the hypocrisy of a superpower that represents itself as the leading edge of liberty in the Middle East but has so little respect for press freedom that its leader would cavalierly speak of wiping out hundreds of civilian journalists. If the British documents surface and the story's seriousness is borne out, whatever shreds of credibility Bush still has in the Middle East will be completely gone. After all, the current phase of US involvement in the Middle East, and the two wars Americans have fought in the region, came in response to the terrorist bombing of innocent civilians in downtown office buildings.

How better to defeat enemies than becoming them?

Go read the rest.