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All opinions posted. None too pathetic or contrived. Everyone gets their say.
"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Victory and Defeat
Iraq the Model
I prefer the old way -- Guns and Butter. Instead the media seems to prefer cap pistols and hardtack.
Our Muslim and Arab leaders are good at making their worst defeats look like great victories and they’re great experts in this field. And I see that the free world is an expert in making their great victories look like defeats and this is the reason why Arab leaders lose again and again while the free world triumphs again with less sacrifices.This has always been my big peeve. The media is reflexively reactionary when it comes to progressive economic and social policies, and radical when it comes to national security issues.
The sharp criticism to each process enables you to avoid the mistakes of the previous experiments and turns errors to useful lessons, and this is great. But this time I see that the western media has went beyond the limits of objective criticism and rational pursue for truth.
The media are not displaying their view point leaving the decision making to the audience. I see that the media are pushing us to adopt their opinions and this is totally unacceptable.
The media is losing credibility among the audience and this is happening so fast and it is a huge mistake.
I want to say to the media: by continuing like this you’re taking the dictators and terrorists’ side and you’re feeding their arrogance when you say "We were wrong when we went to Iraq" or "Iraq was better off before the war and Iraqis and the world are suffering because of the war" and you’re using the failure to find the Iraqi WMDs and the casualties among Iraqi civilians as a weapon in this media war.
[...]
...I’m going to list what I see as the most important questions that must be asked to verify whether the operation was a success or not and whether it served Iraqis and the world or not.
- Do you think that Saddam had he been left alone would have developed WMDs?
- Do you think that Saddam’s regime represented a danger to his people, the region and the whole world?
[...]
- Do you think that dealing with such threats, if you believe they existed, was a matter of urgency?
[...]
- Do you think that Iraqis were going to revolt against Saddam soon and what would it have cost Iraq?
[...]
- Do you think there’s a real possibility for a totalitarian regime or a dictatorship to rule Iraq and kill millions of people again?
[...]
- Do you think the fact that Iraqis keep volunteering to serve in the new army, police, National Guard; doing their jobs in every field; preparing for elections despite the terrorist attacks is a good sign that gives hope in the future?
[...]
- Do you think that future governments in Iraq will be an ally for terrorists or make Iraq a training base for terrorists?
- Do you think Iraq now has a better chance to be a democratic peaceful nation that will not threaten anyone than before?
We always support the free media as they watch the authorities, criticize them and expose their faults and corruption but it seems that the media's role has increased considerably lately and about to become more like a first authority rather than the fourth one as its role in affecting governments decisions and policies has expanded and this great expansion in power has given the opportunity for corruption to creep in...I want to say to the media: keep watching them and we’ll keep watching you.
I prefer the old way -- Guns and Butter. Instead the media seems to prefer cap pistols and hardtack.