U.S. journalist wants war to failEditors believe it would ensure 'evil' Bush ousted

Worldnet Daily ^ | May 15, 2004 | WND

[LifeTrek]

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

A British reporter says a U.S. journalist in Baghdad told him she wants to see more Iraqis die so President Bush will be thrown out of office in November.

Toby Harnden, Middle East correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, said he engaged in the conversation while taking a break by the pool at the Al-Hamra Hotel in the Iraqi capital.

In an opinion piece for the Spectator magazine of Britain, Harnden said at poolside he "was accosted by an American magazine journalist of serious accomplishment and impeccable liberal credentials."

The American journalist told Harnden she had been disturbed by his argument that Iraqis were better off now than under Saddam Hussein.

Harnden said he heard from her the usual "script" from antiwar activists, "no WMD, no 'imminent threat' (though the point was to deal with Saddam before such a threat could emerge), a diversion from the hunt for bin Laden, enraging the Arab world, etc."

But the American then came to her point, Hernden said.

"Not only had she 'known' the Iraq war would fail but she considered it essential that it did so because this would ensure that the 'evil' George W. Bush would no longer be running her country.

"Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be. 'Lots of us talk about how awful it would be if this worked out.'"

"Startled by her candor," said Herndon, "I asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing."

The British journalist said, "She nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go."

He then suggest to her that by this logic another Sept. 11 attack, on about Sept. 11, would be perfect for pushing up John Kerry's poll numbers.

"Well, that's different — that would be Americans," she said, haltingly, according to Harnden. "I guess I'm a bit of an isolationist."

In his column, Harnden then commented on the "moral degeneracy of these sentiments," concluding with:

"Whatever we thought about the war before it was launched, it is imperative that the forces of Arab nationalism and Islamism that now threaten to destroy Iraq are defeated. If America fails in Iraq it will be all of us in the West, not just Bush, who will suffer. But those who would be most in peril, of course, would be the Iraqis, who deserve better than to have their country treated as an electoral playground by the American Left or Right. To wish otherwise is as sick as the grins on the faces of the Abu Ghraib torturers."

[LifeTrek]

It is hard enough here in Illinois with our Dick (Durbin) and his prattle!

CA Reminds us again how truly brilliant our Founders were when they decided on the Electoral Collage and the distribution of Senators.
DKK

[Squantos]

I have lived a long and safe life by being proactive vs reactive..........sure would like to find out who this was and pile on her distinguished career in journalism and her speciality of seditious presstitution.

Stay Safe and please ping me if ya find out who this cunning runt is .

[risk]

I can't imagine what it must be like to come home from a hard day of patrolling in Fallujah, watching your buddies get blown to bits -- and then come back to the good old bivouac just to watch Kerry slamming what you do on international TV.

That might have seemed novel and acceptable in 1971, but it ain't gonna fly in 2004.

[LifeTrek]

All, let me know if you ever find out which one of the untrustworthy this is.
DKK

[Jet Jaguar]

Fortunately, we don't have draftees this time around. We all accept the risk. But, we shouldn't have to put up with the incessant attacks and bias from the leftists.

[Dont Mention the War]

Unfortunately though, Nixon;s 1972 Electoral blowout did nothing to impede liberalisn.

Not surprising, since Nixon himself was very liberal on a host of issues. He created the EPA, OSHA, and the CPSC, instituted wage and price controls, was instrumental in making affirmative action mandatory, on and on.

[L`enn]

You have stated something I have seen for a long time. The way the Rocker incdinent, and anytime an athlete says anything they deem homophobic, takes on legs and dominates the sports media for what seems like weeks.
The ironic thing is, issues like steroid use and the resistance to any change in tradition in baseball (DH, wild card) are also pet causes for sports media. I've always felt that the liberals push these also just from the overkill these issue gets, even though they would be in their nature "Conservative" viewpoints. Bob Costas comes to mind.

[risk]

Why not just ask the Telegraph for Toby Harnden's E-mail address and just ask him? Then again, he might have been the one expressing such sentiments himself using a fictional "American journalist" as a false flag. He apparently enjoys chasing disgruntled Americans around in Iraq.

[L`enn]

Good point, despite the fact that then, and to this day, Liberals ignore those facts, and have given him the owner of all things bad about Viet Nam. A Dem administration started our involvement and Nixon ended it.

[SoDak]

I fear you may be right. It feels like we're entering new ground, a time of another civil war. I hope not.

[Squantos]

My Guess is ................Anne Garrel !

http://www.instapundit.com/archives/015545.php

http://www.truthlaidbear.com/archives/2003/09/12/inside_the_mind_of_npr.php#001175

Inside the mind of NPR
September 12, 2003 06:33 AM
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)).

Gross asked a simple question, Garrels answer to which speaks volumes:

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.


Stay safe !

[Southack]

""Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be. 'Lots of us talk about how awful it would be if this worked out.'" "Startled by her candor," said Herndon, "I asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing." The British journalist said, "She nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go."

Disgusting. Reverse the rolls and this would be as if the American right were rooting for our Iranian hostage rescue attempt to fail in order to remove President Carter.

...And it is safe to say that no American Journalist, no...no American at all, on any side of the spectrum said any such thing back then.

Because wishing for an American military *defeat* in order to overthrow an American President is tantamount to treason.

That's not democracy. That's not how a Republic works.

The American left is treading on thin ice here.

[rdb3]

Mr. McGee, you do realize that some of those you pinged here would agree that Bush needs to go and/or he is "evil."

You do realize that, right?

[line drive to right]

There isn't much repartee between sports reporters and news reporters. Yet, the sports reporters don't like to run afoul of the wildly liberal news reporters and columnists. Reporters of any kind love to get awards, they love to go to parties, they love to be identified with any among the "elite," whether "the elite" be others in the media, those in entertainment (including, of course, sports) or politics, etc. These alliances and invites don't happen for you if your worldview is contrary to the prevalent one in the newsroom. Believe me, I don't get invited to parties much anymore, not after everybody knew my convictions. And, I don't need their parties or approval. So many writers, reporters, etc., write more for their peers than they do for their audience.

[LifeTrek]

People do understand that, in relation to history, we just got there! Do Americans today have the patients to realize this?
DKK

[Sodbuster]

"I can't imagine what it must be like to come home from a hard day of patrolling in Fallujah, watching your buddies get blown to bits -- and then come back to the good old bivouac just to watch Kerry slamming what you do on international TV. That might have seemed novel and acceptable in 1971, but it ain't gonna fly in 2004."

Why not? What are you, I, and the rest of America going to do about it? I agree with you, but what to do? I am seriously pissed off. I believe the media is treasonous, lying, SOB's. Jennings, Rather, Brokaw, Matthews... especially Olberman. Always slanting the news and placing their socialist opinions into their news as if it were fact. We are in a war to the death that may not end in my lifetime (I'm 36) and they don't get it. The world has changed and they still think that they can play their petty partisan games. Pathetic... Infuriating. They can win their petty war and we can become European in America. But not for long because the Muslims are coming. They don't want to assimilate... They want to rule... Their way. They think in terms of decades and centuries while we think in terms of weeks and months. We will lose unless this changes.

[risk]

Great tagline. I didn't know what it meant until I punched it into Google and came up with a few choice links. I think $710.96 must have been quite a chunk of change. I suppose it's still costing us. That reminds me: some of the most patriotic comments I've heard in the media about the war in Iraq have come from black servicemembers and their families.

[rdb3]

Glad you like it. When I came across the price, I had to use it.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

"Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be. 'Lots of us talk about how awful it would be if this worked out.'"

I know it makes the left ( especially journalists ) all warm and fuzzy to think the war in Iraq has turned out to be a disaster but they're full of manure. If they ever took a military history course and used their one brain cell to think they would know that it's one of the most successful campaigns ever. Of course things aren't perfect, no war ever is.

What about the media's upcoming disaster when Kerry loses bad in November? Most papers and TV news have been bleeding red ink thanks to their constant liberal slant. Good businessmen wold be taking steps to get their readers and viewers back, but they wont do anything about it until after the election. By then it will be too late as the most accurate section of the news will be the weather. I expect massive firings then of editors and liberal journos who are dragging their profits down.

[LifeTrek]

I hope your right, that is why I said I hope this a wake up call for them. I was amazed after their 2002 election loss they decided to go farther left by chosing Blowsme I mean Pilosi as their leader in the house. Dashle literally makes me ill, but that is another subject.

History already shows we have made dramatic progress in Iraq and on the war on terror. Remember to always phrase it as the, "Battle of Iraq." Because that is what this is in the overall War on Terror.
DKK