For the US president Bush, the word €œevil€� serves to cover up a
multitude of sins. He has used it repeatedly to describe the Islamic
fundamentalist group that carried out the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks. On numerous occasions he has referred to the leader of Al Qaeda
as €œthe evil one.€� This particular expression serves a very immediate
political purpose, since it avoids naming Osama bin Laden and thereby
calling to mind the longstanding business association between the Bushes
and the wealthy bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia.

The existence of €œevil€� constitutes the only explanation given by the
Bush administration for the emergence of Islamic fundamentalist
terrorism. Such a semi-mystical and religious presentation (which, of
course, assumes that the United States government embodies €œgood€�) has
the advantage of precluding any consideration of politics or history. In
particular, it obscures the role played by US foreign
policy€”Washingtons alliance with despotic oil-rich regimes such as the
one in Saudi Arabia, US sponsorship of the Afghan Mujahadeen, the CIAs
covert war against secular nationalist and socialist groups in the
Middle East, the unconditional support for Israel against the
Palestinians€”in creating the social and political conditions in which
retrograde tendencies like Al Qaeda could grow.