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Originally Posted by raptor10
From my (admittedly inexperienced) point of view, the Middle East and South East Asia are the last two hotspots for major conflict to break out (I am ignoring Africa as destability in that region does not have the possibility of destabilizing the world). Because of this threat America needs to have a long term Democratic Muslim Ally in the Middle East. Someone that understands Muslim Culture yet is still dedicated to democratic ideals. And that is why we are in Iraq to cultivate a satellite state that will act as an interloper in future conflicts, and serve as a model of Muslim Democracy. If this works then this will hopefully turn into a reverse Domino theory where one state after another "falls" to democracy. Success in Iraq means we have done the impossible, and others will take notice. Failure will be fuel to Arab hatred of the west. And noone is saying that it wont be difficult. We've given the Iraqi people the cliffnotes version of Democracy, compressing our 200 years of trial and error into 3. And if you'll remember we got it wrong our first time at bat.
So this war is important not only for security today, but lasting security for the forseeable future.
Thats why this war is good or more correctly necessary.
Now what the Military and the Administration asks from the media is to understand that when you take cameras into war and document it then you become a part of the war effort, whether you wanted to or not, and you become either a rallying point to the troops (with movies like this Operation Enduring Freedom) or a rallying point for our enemies with videos like the one shown above. And they must understand this if they want to have a moral account of this war. |
Given any knowledge of our government's past history, I don't know how any sane person can actually believe that our government is in favor of democracy as a policy. They like democracy when it serves their economic interests and will help them achieve their end goals. When it doesn't, they favor dictatorships. More than a dozen times in the past 50 years our government has participated in overthrowing democratically elected governments in order to install dictatorships. And some of those dictatorships have been among the most brutal regimes in the 20th century.
I'll believe that George Bush wants democracy in the Middle East when he starts speaking out against the brutal dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Kazakhstan instead of honoring these dictators at White House receptions and giving them military aid so they can further repress their people.
As far as war coverage and information, it sounds like you are in favor of bringing back Woodrow Wilson's Espionage Act, and have the government start rounding up journalists and putting them behind bars. But until that happens (I have no doubt it will sometime in the next few years), it is not a crime to report on the war. If you do not like watching the coverage of the war, then change the channel.
If you think the American networks are bias as I do, then watch foreign media sources so you can get a more unbiased view of the war. As a general rule, news sources from countries involved in any war are going to be biased. Would have read a Pakistani or Indian news source if you wanted good coverage of the last war between those 2 countries?? Would you have read an Iranian or Iraqi newspaper during the 1980s to get your information on the war between those 2 countries? Probably not.
As for me, I would prefer just to receive more information and less commentary. Watching actual video of the war is as good as it comes. I don't need the news anchors to tell me their interpretation of what is happening. Just give me the information on what is happening and I can form my own conclusions.
In general, I have seen very little actual war coverage from the American news networks including CNN. 99% of what they report is what some Pentagon spokesperson said at the daily news briefing in the Green Zone. I really don't care what the Pentagon spokesperson said. I want to see film of what actually happened.
With the release of the film Flags of our Fathers last week, the history channel had some documentaries on the Iwo Jima invasion. There was tons of actual video of the battle. If they could take so much video of a war back in 1945, I'm pretty sure that doing it today should not be a problem. Yet I have barely seen any coverage of this war, or even the first Gulf War. I read in the newspaper that there was a big battle in Baghdad that lasted 5 hours, but I don't see any coverage of it. Why not?