CHARLIE DANIELS' mood seems to be swinging back a bit away from the Dark Side in his latest, "Media Missing." It's about a theme he's hit before, claiming that things in Iraq are just ducky, except that The Media keep reporting bad news. This is a theme we've been hearing more and more lately from defenders of the Bush policy.
Chuckie relies on a device popular on rightwing Web sites of quoting from anonymous letters allegedly from soldiers in Iraq, which just happen to mirror the official line of the moment on the war. This routine is dubious for a number of reasons. Especially since there are a number of news outlets that vet soldiers' letters according to normal journalistic criteria. There's plenty of credible sources for such quotes without this anonymous-soldier schtick, especially when the quotes are totally supportive of official policy.
Yeah, the news from Iraq is great. Except for the one or more American soldiers killed each day. And the daily ambushes. Or check out this story from Robert Fisk of the London Independent, one of the few Western reporters in Iraq who speaks Arabic, about a guerrilla attack in Baghdad (click on "Missles Strike at Heart of US Occupation):
[O]ne eyewitness described how - after firing the third rocket - the man left four more missiles lying on the road and then drove away as slowly and calmly as he arrived. Dozens of American troops arrived in the street minutes later but their attacker was gone, his missiles killing no one but making headlines round the world. The message was obvious: now even the very centre of the US occupation, the most fortified compound in Iraq with the Rashid, the former Presidential Palace - now home to US proconsul, Paul Bremer - and a conference centre, is unsafe.
Maybe Chuckie is getting letters from soldiers who know how to say "hi" in Arabic and they get nice smiles from Iraqi children. But the story that's driving the fate of the occupation is more likely to be found elsewhere. Not reporting it would just make it easier to cover up for policy failures.
Chuckie ends all his rants by asking us, "Pray for our troops." Maybe before the next war, Chuckie could also pray for a little better judgment before he cheers mindlessly for putting American troops in harm's way.
No comments:
Post a Comment