Fear and anger inside Iraq

msnbc.com ^ | 9/8/02 | Ron Allen

[Thane_Banquo]

Allen: There?s a lot of anger in this country about America. It?s been that way for years. The Iraqis blame America for a lot of the problems here. They blame America for 12 years of sanctions that have impoverished vast numbers of people.

The Iraqi people tell him what they have to say to not be killed by Hussein. My feeling is they actually hate Saddam and can't wait for him to be gone.

[TheBattman]

Allen: No is the short answer. It’s very hard to get people here to say anything negative about the government, to say anything negative about their leader. The comments you always hear from people — whether you stop them in the street or in the market or in their homes — is that they are always very positive and respectful of the Iraqi leader. The view is very different outside the country, of course — in London and other places where there is an opposition movement. But here, inside the country, there’s never a disparaging word heard.

Well, what do you expect? The people there only hear what Saddam lets them hear. They also know that the government is screening every single journalist's reports - why risk your life telling how you really feel?

[dighton]

It’s very hard to get people here to say anything negative about the government, to say anything negative about their leader. The comments you always hear from people — whether you stop them in the street or in the market or in their homes — is that they are always very positive and respectful of the Iraqi leader.

No kidding!

Iraqi man's tongue amputated for berating Saddam

[Reo]

Another MSNBC waste of time.....no wonder their ratings are in the toilet.

[kinghorse]

Look no further than the explanation of their lack of freedom of access to know we are dealing with the dark side of humanity. When agents of this repressive regime move their lips nothing truthful comes out.

[AF68]

They tell us what they feel, and we try to portray their point of view. We try not to take sides; we try to be objective.

This clown should have been a reporter in Berlin or Tokyo at the start of WWII. After all, Hitler's Nazis and Tojo's imperialist military had their points of view which are just as valid as ours.</sarcasm>

[The Electrician]

I just heard from the director of the media center here that the government feels very strongly that Iraq has fulfilled all of its commitments under the U.N. Security Council resolutions

Amazing how the lies flow so freely from these guys.

[LurkedLongEnough]

"they’re being demonized"

like... "the Great Satan"?????

[Teacher317]

Fear and anger inside Iraq

Good. Eventually, they might figure out that Saddam is the real source of all of their pain and they can do their dirty work for us. After all, the Iraqi people (outside of the leadership) stand to gain the most from his ouster.

[SkyPilot]

My dear Lord.

The media are more concerned with indocrinating the West than reporting of the thugs in that regime.

Hey PMSnbc.com, why don't you tell us the story about how Saddam son tortured (and then injected with rat poison) an ordinary Iraqi man because he stopped him from raping his cousin? Even Newsweek printed that!

[Dialup Llama]

I saw a picture of Blair with Bush. Blair didn't have that silly grin he sometimes has. He looked very grim. Something is really up. Decisions have been made.

[hflynn]

There’s no love lost between these two nations. Even younger Iraqis — we’ve visited universities here over the years, and I was at one just a few months ago — there’s a feeling that the United States is a superpower that is arrogant, that lies, that does not like Arab people and pursues politics that are not in the interests of the world. And I think those feelings are going to be even more intense as the American rhetoric increases.

Pursues politics that are not in the interest of the world? ROTFLMAO!!!! Why didn't Allen ask some of these brilliant university students for examples of Iraq pursuing politics in the interest of the world? The only one that I can thing of is Iraq's pursuit of its own destruction.

[Fabozz]

"We are escorted everywhere around town."

"The comments you always hear from people — whether you stop them in the street or in the market or in their homes — is that they are always very positive and respectful of the Iraqi leader."

Those two sentences taken together are all the proof you need that the mainstream media are idiots.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"I know the government here is very, very angry, very concerned, feeling again that they’re not getting a fair hearing in the court of public opinion, that they’re being demonized."

When the book: "The Rise and Fall of the Free World" is written, it will become clear that the "fall" began with 24/7 cable "news".

[gaspar]

Allen is a useful idiot, and from this interview doesn't seem to know it.

[Eala]

They tell us what they feel, and we try to portray their point of view. We try not to take sides; we try to be objective.

I guess it all depends upon what the meaning of "objective" is...

[stevem]

Drivel like this is the reason I stopped watching news, almost any news, on network or cable TV. The fact that an interview such as this would ever even happen, THEN be made public is a tribute to the non-news ability of reporters and editors.

I stopped watching this idiocy about two years ago, and that frees up a good deal of time for more productive pursuits.

[dagoofyfoot]

There's a feeling that the United States is a super power that is arrogant, that lies, that does not like Arab people

Well...one out of three ain't bad...