Inside the mind of NPR (Reporter admits taking perverse pleasure in US "failure" in Iraq)

I like NPR. I don't agree with their slant of coverage much of the time, particularly regarding the war. But I listen, simply because there just ain't any alternative if you want continuous radio news coverage. But even I was taken somewhat aback by an interview I heard yesterday.

In a bout of self-examination (or is it congratulation?) NPR's Terry Gross interviewed NPR's Anne Garrels on Fresh Air yesterday. Garrels was NPR's correspondent in Iraq during the early phase of the war, and has just written a book on the experience.

The interview is available in RealAudio format here --- the segment in question begins at about 28 minutes 30 seconds in. (The transcript below is my own transcription from listening to the audio (repeatedly)).

Terry Gross: Could you describe what you consider to be the emotional high point and low point for you during the war --- as a reporter and as a human being being there?

Anne Garrels: I think a curious high point was in the weeks afterwards when I realized that all the months of staying there had really been worth it because Iraqis had so accurately predicted what was going to happen; Iraqis knew themselves and made it very clear. So in a perverse kind of way I guess that was a high point. I was astonished at how ill-prepared the Bush administration was for the aftermath from the very beginning. And that continues to this day.

Think about this. Garrels witnessed the fall of one of the more evil regimes of the past century. Even for the most staunch opponent of the war, the end of Saddam's power and the beginning of the Iraqi people's freedom must be recognized as a huge achievement for human decency. But what was Garrels emotional high point? That's right: when she felt reassured that yes, things really are going badly for Iraq -- and the U.S. When her view that America was screwing things up was confirmed.

It is human to want to validate one's own actions; to feel some smug self-justification if events do indeed turn out badly when one has been predicting they would. But in Garrels situation, with all the things she must have seen and experienced, to declare that feeling to be the high point?

It is honorable of Garrels to admit this honestly. But that doesn't make it any less pathetic.

"Garrels' & Co. plus the current 9 dwarfs and the Clintons' DNC Politburo's immaturity/delusion/5th column propaganda is pathetic, as it is dangerous to our Republic." ~ SevenDaysInMay

Talking about the fifth column -- another swamp we need to drain in addition to the CIA, etc., is "Foggy Bottom". It is FULL of Marxists and Arabists who hate Bush and Chalabi, have tried to prevent us from defending ourselves militarily in the first place, and have thrown road blocks in the way of Bremer at every turn in his efforts to rebuild Iraq, now that we won the initial phase of the Iraq war.

"Several individuals from State's Near Eastern Affairs (who opposed democracy in Iraq and for years sought to undermine Saddam's democratic opponents) are actually key advisers to Bremer." ~ Laurie Mylroie

6-27-03: "U.S. forces have at least gone back on offense against the Baathists, as in last week's attack on the convoy near Syria. U.S. regent L. Paul Bremer has also pursued a vigorous de-Baathification campaign.

This is a huge step forward from the early occupation, when State Department official Robin Raphel said it would be "fascistic" to purge too many Baathists.

In one episode reported by Mr. Tyler on May 8, Mr. Bayyati watched in horror as his former Baathist jailer walked past him to meet with Ms. Raphel."

"Disarming the Free Iraqi Forces after the war was a terrible mistake, another example of the State Department and CIA vendetta against Ahmed Chalabi."

There's also a message here for the U.S. political class: Saddam is counting on the media and politicians to continue their bureaucratic navel-gazing since the main fighting ended.

He wants them to re-parse every Pentagon word, and to interview every CIA analyst, to somehow show that liberating Iraq was a mistake. While the Beltway spins, he and his Baathists can plot their return."

HERE: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/936419/posts

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State of Denial September 9, 2003
The Wall Street Journal

The Pentagon is getting blamed for every problem in Iraq, but any honest post mortem should also focus on the State Department's hostility to enlisting Iraqis as our allies.

Even now, at this crucial stage in Iraq's transition to democracy, Foggy Bottom has chosen to discontinue all funding to the Iraqi National Congress under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act.

The withheld money will apparently include $5.1 million that should have been disbursed in 2001, much of it for INC radio and TV.

This is hardly the policy Congress intended.

The Act specifically states that "once Saddam Hussein is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should [provide] democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals."

The INC is just that: ardently pro-American, and the only major non-ethnic, non-sectarian movement in the country today.

Yet State continues to pursue what can only be described as a bureaucratic vendetta against Ahmed Chalabi, who this month sits as the rotating president of the new Iraq Governing Council.

Among State's excuses is that it can no longer favor any one Iraqi group. But the U.S. should be helping any group that wants to assist in democratic reconstruction, if only to counter the foreign money flowing in to other, less savory groups.

INC broadcasting would be a special help right now. The American-backed revival of official Iraqi television has gone so poorly that the station's first director quit early last month, saying he lacked the resources to compete with the likes of al Jazeera and al Arabiya.

Meanwhile, those stations, along with others sponsored by Iran and Syria, continue to spew anti-American propaganda.

The restoration of INC money is urgently needed, and it appears that may require a Presidential word with Secretary Colin Powell.

"Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say "Ni" at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land! Nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this point in time." -- Roger the Shrubber

On a more series note, I tend to think of the culture at a boiling point. Like the wort in beer making, the left has worked for a long time to destroy our cultural superstructure and, once gone, reinnoculate society with their particularly noxious strain of mental illness.

In some ways, though, the boiling point can be a good thing since it also concentrates and refines the left into a more definable, visible enemy. Further, the scum that tends to rise in such conditions and can be skimmed off as it comes to the surface. For awhile now, a fair amount of scum has been getting skimmed off but we have a long, long way to go.
An alternative view (with some merit) is that we're in a culture war that is a prologue to a shooting war.

Maybe.

In any event, one thing is for certain...

DEFUND NPR, PBS AND THE AMERICAN PRAVDA NETWORK - NOW!

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Please note this is a medium- to high-volume list.
Please feel free to ping me if you come across a thread you would think worthy of this ping list. I can't catch them all!