[Green Left Weekly, #470, November 7, 2001]
It has become a familiar scenario. A former political tool of the United States has fallen from favour and become an obstacle. Washington decides to take drastic action to assert its interests. But first, the public must be ideologically conditioned. Through a strident campaign in the mass media, the recalcitrant regime is painted in the blackest colours. A decade ago, the Gulf War required Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to be portrayed as an Arab Hitler; today, the terrorist Osama bin Laden is an "enemy of civilisation", likewise Afghanistan's Taliban regime which shelters him.