Where is the peace? (Ithaca newspaper mourns loss of Saddam)

Ithaca Journal ^ | Originally published Saturday, March 20, 2004 | Gannett News Service

[Behind Liberal Lines]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An old Arab proverb says tyranny is better than anarchy.

A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Iraqis have scarcely had a day free of bedlam. That point was driven home Wednesday with the devastating bombing of a hotel in central Baghdad that killed dozens of people just two days before the war's one-year anniversary.

Perhaps the worst day of violence was March 2, when suicide bombers attacked Shiite shrines in the holy city of Karbala and in Baghdad, killing more than 180 people.

That attack, more than any other, has raised an important question on the ground in Iraq now: Can the center hold against the rampant violence intended to plunge Iraq into civil war by fomenting sectarian violence?

While civil war remains unlikely, another major spike in violence could exacerbate the raging ill will toward U.S. troops here struggling to restore security. Within minutes of the Karbala bombing, U.S. soldiers were forced to retreat from stone-throwing mobs.

"What do the Americans do? They don't help us; they sit behind their walls," Mahatr al-Salem said as he poked around a Baghdad store. "We protect ourselves."

Bahrel Khartul blames the March 2 bombing, in part, on U.S. troops and their inability to keep the nation secure. "They can't secure our cities, but we must do what they say."

[Behind Liberal Lines]

This sickening story ("tyranny is better than anarchy") that implies the Iraqi people were better off under Saddam's murderous rule, is only part of the barf-fest in today's Ithaca Journal.

The City of Evil's paper of record also has a front-page story on a dead soldier's parents complaining that their son "got killed for nothing":

"It was a senseless war. We shouldn't have been over there...They didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. We go places and stick our noses where they don't belong...I'm angry with the president. I think of him with his children safe here...We have children that go over there and lost their lives and have blood flow in the sands of Iraq..."

There's also an interview with a group of scruffy anti-Americans who threw blood in a recruiting station, who "hold fast to belief U.S. wrong to go to war" (that's news?).

The only "attempt" at balance is an article buried in the center of the paper about some residents who supported the war. However, even that article begins with someone who disagrees with the President on other issues:

Richard E. Jorgensen doesn't agree with President Bush on most domestic policy issues the country is wrestling with at the beginning of the 21st Century..."A Constitutional amendment for gay marriage?" Jorgensen quipped.

Basically, what we have here is an evil paper for an evil city.

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

City of Evil, media bias bump

[cyborg]

City of EEEEEEEEVIL BTTT

[HIDEK6]

"tyranny is better than anarchy"

Does anyone remember, "Better red than dead."?

[syriacus]

The City of Evil's paper of record also has a front-page story on a dead soldier's parents complaining that their son "got killed for nothing":

This only goes to prove Kerry and His Coalition of the Unwilling made a mistake by pressuring the US to withdraw from Vietnam.

By pressuring the US to abandon Southeast Asia, Kerry made the lives of the GIs who died in Vietnam meaningless.

Our GIs died to help the people of Southeast Asia be free and Kerry handed Southeast Asia to the communists.

[syriacus]

Sorry, I meant to say...

By pressuring the US to abandon Southeast Asia, Kerry made the sacrifices of the GIs who died in Vietnam seem meaningless.

[syriacus]

Does anyone remember, "Better red than dead."?

I do. And I was stupid enough to think you really had to make a choice between the two.

People can be both alive and free if they persist in their fight against tryranny.

[Eala]

A Google search on the phrase "tyranny is better than anarchy" is very interesting. But it's no wonder the Left quotes the phrase, since they would rather we all lived under their tyranny.

[HIDEK6]

Thank you for making the point. "Better red than dead," was a false choice, a slogan of the cowardly.

[Ken in Denver]

It was said by someone, I believe of Mussolinni, that "He made the trains run on time." Same mentality.

[EAGLE7]

I found a quote that pretty much sums up why the left embraces communism and tyrants. It's from 'The Prophet', by Kahlil Gibran. "And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?"

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Does anyone remember, "Better red than dead."?

Why not ask THESE people if they would agree:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And see this for a serious body count:

A Lifesaving War

[Soaring Feather]

bump to the top.

[mewzilla]

Is the IJ owned by Gannet, or does the paper just reprint Gannett's pap?

[rockprof]

An old Arab proverb says tyranny is better than anarchy.

Personally, I like "Live free or die."

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Is the IJ owned by Gannet, or does the paper just reprint Gannett's pap?

Owned by Gannett.

Personally, I've always thought that the IJ was where they sent the Gannett reporters who were too illiterate and shallow to work for USA Today. ;-)

[NativeNewYorker]

Following the link, this piece looks like Gannett Wire copy, not a locally-generated opinion piece. It is certainly odious...and it is certainly "at home" in the IJ...but this same piece, unsigned no less, likely ran in most Gannett rags.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I suspect few of them ran it as the front page headline, however

[NativeNewYorker]

IS THAT WHERE IT WAS??

Location wasn't clear from the link.