Posted on 06/30/2007 11:11:16 AM PDT by pabianice
When a South Korean student began his killing spree on the grounds of Virginia Tech back in April this year, slaughtering 32 people, the incident generated extensive coverage worldwide and grabbed the headlines in the regional press as well.
There were editorial comments too in the regional press expressing total shock and questioning the state of mind of Cho, the Korean student behind the carnage. And in the letters pages of the local papers readers expressed sympathy and compassion for the families of the fallen.
An equally gruesome incident happened this month but hardly a line appeared in our newspapers. And there weren’t any editorials condemning yet another round of slaughter of the innocent. Very few if any letters appeared expressing sympathy and comfort to the victims or their families.
Seven children aged between 4 and 12 were brutally killed by bombs unleashed by a US-led airstrike against a compound in the remote region of eastern Afghanistan just a few days ago. US authorities admitted that it was a targeted strike, and that it was a “mistake.” Following the deaths of over 350 innocent civilians in the past few months at the hands of the occupational forces, this was just another round of “mistakes.”
Offering hollow apologies for their errors, spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher of the United States Army said, “We are truly sorry for the innocent lives lost in this attack.” “Sorry” after the fact! What good will this apology bring to the families of the victims?
And when Khalid Farouqi, a member of Parliament from Paktika, angry at the actions of the US forces and claiming that apologies were no longer adequate, stated that, “Nobody can accept the killing of women and children. It is not acceptable in either Islam or international law,” there wasn’t any significant press coverage.
Dr. Ajub Gul, a physician at the main hospital in the provincial capital, Tirin Kot, said more than two dozen patients were brought in with serious wounds following the bombing of this civilian enclave. “There are many more wounded, but they can’t come because of the continuous shelling,” he said. “The aircraft are targeting the civilians inside and outside of their houses. There are many villagers under the rubble.”
Violence has swelled in Afghanistan, claiming about 2,400 civilian lives during 2007, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western military and Afghan officials. Those dead at Virginia Tech pale in comparison! And yet, in the regional media one did not find any screaming headlines or bewildered editors spew forth their words of condemnation. Are Afghani lives insignificant compared to the lives of Americans? Is it the color of their skin, or is it because the press views them as mere statistics?
Arab media can often be mistaken for an arm of the Pentagon press, with glib reports describing Iraqi resistance to the occupation as “insurgency” or “terrorism”, and decrying the loss of American lives, while paying scant attention to the growing number of civilians being killed there.
Over 650,000 civilians have lost their lives in Iraq since the invasion, but our media fails to highlight this point. Instead, those fighting against this brutality are more often than not termed as “militants.”
Even the columns by some of our so-called regional commentators or “experts” smack of a patronizing attitude toward the mess in the region, seeking to deflect attention from US or Israeli brutality in Iraq or Palestine and blaming “terrorists” or “Al-Qaeda” for all regional ills. Notice how every ill has its root in “Al-Qaeda” today!
Richard Perle or Paul Wolfowitz couldn’t have stated it any better than some of our own neocons.
To them, everything Israel and the US are doing militarily is for the benefit of the region. The loss of innocent lives is inconsequential.
Where has the rest of our Arab press disappeared if they are not crawling under some obscure rock? Are they simply content to reprint wire copies from international press agencies glossing over the murder and butchery of the innocent, grotesquely brushed aside as “mistakes?”
It is indeed a shame accompanied by a sense of betrayal that there are no laurels to spread around within the Arab media.
And nearly all of the actual "civilians" (as opposed to enemy combatants) were killed in suicide bombings by MUSLIM TERRORISTS that Arab News can't seem to condemn.
The 650,000 number isn’t even remotely correct. This fake number has been already repeatedly debunked. Don’t even give it the slightest credit.
650,000 is probably overstated by at least 10:1.
“How much longer are we going to send them foreign aid?”
I’d rather send them aid instead of allow them to immigrate. Sending aid to people who hate us started right after WWII.
“An equally gruesome incident happened this month but hardly a line appeared in our newspapers”
Sounds like this is a US publication.
And it is NOT “equally gruesome”. One man mugged for the camera and proudly murdered those students. Was there forethought in the airstrike? Yes. Where the victims the intended targets? No. Were they equal in number? No. Were they told: “Hello, I’m going to KILL YOU!”? No. Were their exits barred prior to attack? No.
Beheadings and suicide bombers who target school children DO have forethought and I can assure you that the Arab News isn’t wringing their hands over them.
Pure antiAmerican drivel.
Theres are two things wrong with the 650k deaths in Iraq. 1) The number is wrong 2) they blame the US, instead of the terrorists that are doing the killing. Its very warp thinking.
This incident WAS reported on national news and on the internet. These people have a lot of nerve spouting off about this when they should be horrified at their people who massacre their own on a daily basis, women and children included. Why the hell we’re still sending them money is beyond me. I wish I could earmark all my tax dollars for our troops and their families.
What of the “civillians”? ‘Civilians’ who wage war? The KKK were “civilian” too when they terrorized the south in the 100 years after the Civil War (lynchings, bombings, and the like seem to have died down significantly since the 1960s).
A dead civilian does not mean someone innocent. It also does not mean we killed him/her. The “civilian” insurgents also get to add their kills to the “Bush’s fault” civilian dead tally.
The media is doing the work of Goebbels and Stalin.
Muslims are prohibited from criticizing other muslims. Therefore it must be the kufir’s fault.
Had we known that the 4 to 12 year old human shields were there, we might have targeted differently. Then those seven kids could have grown up to try to kill us as well.
I would like to comment on this part of your article:
>>..seeking to deflect attention from US or Israeli brutality in Iraq or Palestine and blaming “terrorists” or “Al-Qaeda” for all regional ills. Notice how every ill has its root in “Al-Qaeda” today!<<
Here in my house, in my neighbourhood, in my country, we can’t be bothered keeping track of your various a@@clown gang names, so they are all just AQ to us. I don’t care if that offends the Allah’s Mighty Goatlover Brigade of Mohammed or whatever, you are all insane anyway.
The “ills” in your region are not because of the U.S. or Israel, it is because you are Muslims, and as I say, you are all insane. You worship death and you hate life. You cannot ever know peace because you cannot live and let live.
Stay in your own cesspit countries and don’t try to come here. I am a woman who owns a gun and does not want to be wrapped in a shroud. I also have, and intend to keep, all my happy parts. Go pound sand, you worthless excuses for men.
Kind regards,
ishabibble
How did they all die? Where are the bodies?
The implication is that Americans killed them, but the proof is nowhere to be produced.
The people we sent aid to after WWII were totally vanquished! They had given up the fight.
In the current situation there is no compelling moral or ethical reason to send aid while their intent is still to kill us.
Aid should only be doled out for promises of assistance to our aims as a nation and/or actual assistance. It should be cut off at the first hint of duplicity.
Aid to those in dire straights because of flood or famine is justified but should be limited to getting the affected back on their feet and productive in sloving their own problems.
Aid because we feel sorry for the plight of those that refuse to help themselves is foolhardy and unrewarding.
perhaps..we..have..a..new..location..for..methane/other..airborne..fecal..particulate..studies
Why should America give aid to those countries that vote against it in the UN? Many of these nations should learn that they not bite the hand that feeds them. You never give aid to an enemy because you do not want their children to kill your children in the future.
Maybe they were all laughing too hard to type.
Lets send them to hell instead.
Well, it HAS to be true! Rosie O'Donnell said so on The View, and Barbara Walters, legendary newswoman, didn't contradict her. Barbara wouldn't risk her reputation as a legitimate journalist just to appease Rosie, would she? </sarcasm>
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