Thanks again for your reply and service.
Our posts yesterday got me to thinking about something you touched on below: What exactly IS the role of the media in a situation such as Iraq?
Because I feel (you can enlighten me if I'm offbase here!) that it's disrespectful to the soldiers and their families to NOT report the tragic losses that inevitably will occur to them. I also feel it's disrespectful to fail to even mention the success stories. So, doesn't the press have to report (not by law, but by ideology) both sides? If they do report on the losses and tragedies, doesn't that still give the enemy inspiration and motivation?
It's obvious which 'side' the American media has chosen to focus on - zero arugment there.
Of course, "media" like Al-Jasuckera does no good for anyone, as they are 100% propaganda-based.
"...I dont think that only "positive" reporting is a good thing, because that is propaganda as well...The Aljazersize network spews lies and does all it can to infuse the jihad with energy and momentum..."
And it is not only the Arab media. European and American media are also presenting a distorted picture. I heard this little gem on NPR last night. As an AIM writer myself, I'm thinking of dissecting it to demonstrate how and why this is biased [it would be time-consuming to look up the research to counter the assertions and point out where opinion is presented as fact]: (It is excerpted because it is very long)
"Iraq: The War After the War"
http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/iraq/transcript.html [Here are the sub-headings:]
Tragic mistakes in al Anbar province
Intelligence failures
Rage... and a Deep Sense of Loss
Resentment grows in Falluja
You can't bear it anymore...
Struggling to win hearts and minds
The Unexpected War
Insurgency
Ill-prepared for peacekeeping
"Bring 'em on"
Learning from past experience
Combat Stress Reaction
A Brilliant Con
Community Policing in Saddam City
Lawlessness Continues
A Call to Jihad
Paying the Price
American-style Grassroots Politics
Pockets of Tolerance, Evaporating Goodwill
Car jacking, Kidnapping on the Rise
The children share their nightmares.
Thirty-five Years of a Brutal Regime [look how far into the piece before anything bad about Saddam]
Reassessing the Cost [here is the last section]
"But back on May 1, it all seemed so clear, so simple, when President George Bush declares major combat over - standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier off the coast of California.
"Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free. The world is a more secure place." - President Bush, announcing the end of the war in Iraq.
It was a million dollar photo-op, but within months of the President's declaration, almost every assumption Washington made before the war had been proved wrong.
The collapse of every institution in the Iraq came as surprise.
The price of this war will come from American pockets. The massive bill for rebuilding Iraq will come due long before Iraq's oil fields provide crude and cash to pay for the reconstruction, and the unexpected war after the war, that began in the Sunni Arab heartland of central Iraq, threatens to engulf the country.
"If there's a base of support among the population, or at least a population that...has been turned off by the occupation, then there is a danger that the larger attacks or at least more lethal ones will be carried out," explains Peter Galbraith.
"Most Iraqis wanted Saddam Hussein gone," Galbraith continues, "But...most Iraqis don't want to be ruled by the United States and they do not want a long term American presence...This is an ancient culture. It isn't an ancient country, but it's an ancient culture in which the Iraqis are rightly proud. And they want to run their own affairs. They do not want to be treated like a colony."
In September, the president outlined the cost of the Iraq war for the first time, more than $80 billion dollars for this year alone. That's a billion dollars each week just for the military operation - and billions more to stabilize the country. And almost every day, another American military casualty.
Here, American soldiers stand and pay their last respects - a pair of boots, an empty helmet balanced on a rifle - a reminder of another price for post-war Iraq. A price, says James Dobbins, that is higher than it needed to be.
"After all," explains James Dobbins, "This is the sixth major nation-building operation the U.S. has mounted in 12 years. Five of which have been in Muslim countries. We really should be getting better at this."