More Good News from Iraq
The peerless Arthur Chrenkoff has his 18th round-up of Good News from Iraq.
Occasionally - but not too often - we catch in the media the glimpses of that other Iraq; the optimistic, hopeful, enthusiastic, and normal one. More often than not, however, our access is restricted to the now very familiar Iraq of constant bloodshed, rampant terrorism, political instability, stalled reconstruction and widespread disillusionment and frustration. Only time will show which Iraq proves to be more resilient and consequential. But for the time being, as the struggle for the soul and the future of the country goes on, it pays to bear in mind that this struggle if far from an one-sided one; that as the violent Iraq strikes, the normal Iraq fights back, on thousands of fronts, and in thousands of small ways. Here are some of these stories from the past fortnight.
Go check it out.
posted by Drew @ 10:04 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
That's all great, really. I'm happy for all the Iraq citizens who are free to vote. But I still think that you (and Chrenkoff) are wrong about the media bias.
Most of us know a soldier or two serving in Iraq. If these soldiers hand out candy and then get hugs from 6-year-old Iraqi girls, that's great. But I'm ok if I read about it on page 12B; I'm ok if I don't hear about it at all. But if these soldiers die or lose a leg, I want to know about it immediately, and it better be on the front page.
It's war. A dead soldier is simply more important and more newsworthy than a thankful Iraqi holding up a sign.
To summarize: It's not about the information we want, it's about the information we need. I WANT to know about all the good things happening in Iraq, but I NEED to know if my neighbor's 19-year-old son is dead.
I think the media's constant reporting of these onesey-twosey casualties on the front page is an attempt to rub the country's nose in it, so to speak. The media will never report on any substantive accomplishments over there, which is why I choose DRUDGE!!!!!
Hey Dale, how's it going?
That's the good-old Republican/Rumsfield response ... "onesey-twosey casualties" is really insulting.
Nobody ever said that war was supposed to be easy. Anyone who decides to serve our country knows full well that they run the risk of going into harms way. As Rush always says, "the military's purpose is to kill people and break things. It's not meals-on-wheels, folks!"
With regard to my "onesey-twosey" comment, our leaders do their best to ensure that our troops are given the best means to serve their mission, and that they are the best trained in the world. For the media to constantly imply that our mission isn't noble enough, or that our efforts aren't worth even a single casualty, is far more insulting to me. Even more insulting still is the implication that the war in Iraq somehow parallels the war in Vietnam. I don't see how? For some reason, the Republican Party carries this war-mongering stigma that the media has created, I wish the country could get past it. Where was the media outrage when Bill Clinton had us lobbing a few on Iraq (on the very day of his impeachment)? Or the sordid episode in Somalia? Christ, the media was calling for Rummy's resignation over some stupid letter signing fiasco a few weeks ago, gimme a break.
No media bias?
"the military's purpose is to kill people and break things. It's not meals-on-wheels, folks!"
I'll agree with that. I think we'll all agree with that.
War is not about flowers and puppies and little kids playing hopscotch... war is about death and destruction. The mainstream media is merely reporting what the military is doing - killing people and breaking things (noble cause or not, what they're doing remains the same).
I think we'd all be dissapointed if the front page of tomorrow's paper had a big story about happy Iraqi people who can now vote, and a small list of Americans and Iraqis who died this week.
"I think we'd all be dissapointed if the front page of tomorrow's paper had a big story about happy Iraqi people who can now vote, and a small list of Americans and Iraqis who died this week."
I'd probably fall over dead in utter disbelief if I saw just one semi-enlightening story about our efforts in Iraq!
But instead, I guess I'd better be happy knowing that our efforts are for nothing, and that we'll probably never hear anything good about this war. Oh well...
Post a Comment
<< Home