Posted on 10/16/2005 11:46:05 PM PDT by Axhandle
We won again! For a second time, the Iraqi people proved the Western mainstream media, Islamist radicals, self-righteous and nihilistic war protestors, disaffected Democrats, and neo-isolationists wrong: the referendum on the new constitution was successful. The Sunni minority participated in the polling and those among them voting "no" were swamped by the positive outcome.
Iraq will have its new constitution. The transforming intervention led by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair will succeed. The global sweep of bourgeois revolution will continue, centering on Iraq's neighbors: monarchical Saudi Arabia, statist Syria, and theocratic Iran.
But how long will the Western media get the post-9/11 story wrong before they understand that they, the MSM, are a major part of the problem?
For many months, the MSM and their assorted political allies have indoctrinated the world in despicable lies:
· That the Wahhabi terror in Iraq, financed by and recruited among radical Saudis, was an "insurgency" or "resistance" caused by the actions of President Bush.
· That the Sunni Arabs in Iraq backed the alleged insurgency, were uniformly opposed to the constitutional process, and would prevent its completion.
· That anti-Shia blandishments by Saudi and other Sunni rulers would seal Sunni opposition to the new reality in Iraq.
In recent weeks heightened discussion in Washington, and in centers of Islamic debate I visited, such as Jakarta, focused on these claims. Muslims knew the Sunnis would prefer to take advantage of their new right to vote, and would favor a constitutional order in Iraq rather than continued violence. The meddling of the Saudis was considered gross and embarrassing. Muslim leaders I met were more interested in the future of the "Shia-con" phenomenon, i.e. of Iraqi Shias aligned with the U.S. neoconservatives.
What does it mean to be a "Shia-con?" Nothing very different from what it means to be an ordinary neoconservative: bedrock belief in governmental and personal accountability, entrepreneurship, popular sovereignty, and a place for religion in public life. Sunni intellectuals with whom I met pointed out that "neocon" has become a term of abuse in the Muslim world no less than in the West. But when exposed to the foundations of neoconservative thought, they expressed approval.
Nonetheless, moderate Sunni Muslims who tried to tell Western media and government the facts about the probable outcome in the Iraqi constitutional election were ignored. Instead, numerous MSM reporters applied the practice they have pursued since the Sandinista era in Nicaragua: they found radicals and marginal, anonymous grumblers, and presented their clichés as the voice of all Iraqi Sunnis.
Egregious, incorrigible examples of the Stalinist dialectic in the MSM continue even after the Iraq vote. The London Guardian, on Sunday, October 16, published a "news salad," tossed and retossed with vinegar and oil: a sequence of paragraphs seeking to perpetuate the Sunni issue as the sole topic of interest in Iraq. It tried to portray the Sunni vote for the constitution as contributing to further violence in Iraq. The argument, as convoluted as a tantric Yoga exercise, went like this: Sunnis voted, but against the constitution (actually, only some of them voted that way); although they voted in a process to accept the constitution they will not accept it; supposedly, all Sunnis are aggrieved about the share-out of petroleum revenues… blah, blah, blah. A "news salad" is the journalistic equivalent of "word salad:" according to a dictionary, "a jumble of extremely incoherent speech as sometimes observed in schizophrenia."
The pattern is no different from the nonsense reported about Nicaragua, which was supposed to vote for Sandinismo in 1990 but didn't; about Milosevic and his Serbian thugs, who purportedly would fight to the end if confronted by NATO forces, but also didn't; about Saudi women, who supposedly are happy not to drive cars, but aren't.
Regarding the Saudi/Wahhabi utopia, the kingdom south of Iraq still harbors hundreds of clerics inciting violence on the northern side of the border. The sermons of these clerics are posted on websites daily. Some are made public by Western-based Saudi dissidents. But they are mainly ignored by the MSM.
To put it more bluntly, how long will the devotion to disinformation of the MSM continue? Will MSM "journalists" ever be called to account for their consistent misrepresentations?
In dealing with the constitutional process in Iraq, and many other aspects of the present global crisis, Western reporters and commentators should moderate their tendencies towards complicated predictions, especially when they know so little about the religion and culture with which they are dealing. Islam and the Islamic world are much simpler than they think:
. Muslims have middle-class values. Even those who are refugees because of war and terror maintain such attitudes.
· Those who are frustrated in their middle-class ambitions, in such countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, may turn to radicalism.
· Most, however, will repudiate extremism in the interest of personal security, which happens to be a fundamental principle of Islamic governance.
These are the lessons of the Iraqi constitutional vote. Now let's have some reporters and commentators put aside their prejudices and start with such simple matters, and learn what they can about them. The result would be no news for Muslims, but might be Pulitzer Prize material in the West.
Yep.
Democracy sucks. Give me Republicanism any day over rule mob rule.
That's a good question. I think the answer is - When the new media replaces them, and it shows big in profit loss!
The MSM is becoming a threat to freedom and democracy.
The MSM considers THEMSELVES a political entity... therefore to them... there is no 'problem'.
This will of course be just about unreported in the ratmedia. That is a good thing because if they do that they will be following the same plan they used last year to "hide" frenchie's Viet Nam record. Remember they told frenchie not to worry about the Swiftees? Remember evan thomas told frenchie the ratmedia would kill the story by ignoring it? When it did pop up to the surface it killed frenchie. When the dopes in the ratmedia get this swept under the rug they will all pat themselves on the back and laugh. The laughing will stop when the lemmings start tripping over the lump and decide to take a look under there. Every time the old tired ratmedia decides to try to hide something good, the new media cleans their stupid clocks. This will happen again.
Ooops! No comment. When I read the title of your thread, I thought this was about the Houston Astros. Sorry.
Exactly. The MSM and the left - comprising the democrat party, academe, hollywood, unions - have revealed themeselves to be enemies of the USA. They must be repudiated by thoughtful, patriotic Americans. The best - no, the only - way to do so is by hitting them where it hurts, in the pocketbook. Boycott all hollywood movies (except Mel Gibson flicks); stop watching any network news or TV; cancel subscriptions to left-wing rags like the NYT, Time, Newsweek, Washington Post; and so on. When you carry forth those actions, make sure you write a letter telling the media why you are taking this action, and send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining your actions. This is a grassroots attack that can exert a lot of pressure.
The media would respond by lobbying for government funding for their drivel - an expanded PBS initiative that extends to ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT, et al.
They have been running this very biased and full of lies special about the war in Iraq since Saturday afternoon. They have repeated it at least three or four times. It is just unbelievable how much low they can go to diminish the great news and great triumph that occurred in the Iraqi vote for their Constitution. Any lie to show President in bad light and hide any great news that will show how great he is.
You'd never know it when I picked up Sunday and Monday's newspaper here in Phoenix!!
The old established/liberal/socialist media is America's most ruthless, relentless, and destructive enemy.
***
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.