Friday, July 15, 2005

Iraqis protesting...er, something or other

Did you know that Iraqis marched against terrorism? from Media LiesProbably not. The American press didn't cover it. Not newsworthy....I think it's inexcusable that the elite media ignores this type of positive story from Iraq. [Read More] ... A PROTEST YOU HAVEN'T READ ABOUT from Michelle Malkin....The reason you haven't seen it in the press is because it was not against the American troops;....... [Read More] ...The story you won't see on CNN from A North American Patriot...Big thanks to Blackfive for posting this widely unreported march against terrorism in Iraq... [Read More] ... Did you Hear the One About the Anti-Terror Demonstration in Iraq? from The Art of the Blog(via Michelle Malkin) Probably not. In fact, you'll never see this on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Reuters, AP, UPI, the NYT, WaPo, the LA Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, SFGate.com.... As N... [Read More] ... Oh, THAT Liberal Media, Part 3 from Alpine SummitToday in the NYT, there were headlines about another bomb going off killing people, and the Bush/Rove thing. What about a story about 1000 Iraqis marching against terrorism? Not a peep. [Read More]

It's like collecting seashells. They are all pretty much the same, but after a while you just get tired of picking them up. My post would have been a lot longer if I had not got tired of copying and linking, but there were simply too many trackbacks and comments to cover them all. One comment is as good as the next, since they all speak as a single chorus, chanting the same theme over and over as though somehow the message has not already been said and noted. This comment sums up the message with an economy of words.

These are the kind of picture the left-wing news media will never show becuase it dont suit their liberal left-wing cuase especialy the New York Pravda(Times) [I was going to post the link, but it seems to be a porn site. Oh, well...]

The Blackfive Five post and photos, were a great attraction day before yesterday, splashing fuel into one of the favorite memes supporting the war, the MSM Bias Meme.

I missed it, of course, because I don't have that blog in my aggregator. (I also don't have major newspapers, AP, broadcast media, Drudge, Kos, or most of the high-traffic places left, right or center. I figure if a story is big enough it will come to me. I don't have to go looking for it.)

Anyway, this morning I noticed that Najma linked to the same post.
Interesting. She's a kid in Iraq who should be pretty close to the situation.
But she has different take on the post because she can read the signs in the pictures.
Hello.
What might the signs say?
Glad you asked.
How about...

"The juboor's tribe and its allies ask the coalition forces to release the highly-ranked officer Farhan Muthallak who was imprisoned by the coalition forces.."
Or this...

While this photo has 3 signs (The upper ones) out of 5 asking the same thing (Release him), while the other two ask to stop shedding blood and standing against terror:
She then concludes...

The taxi driver who drives me to the lessons was too angry and depressed yesterday.. His relative was killed by American soldiers. He was just upset about the occupation and what the terrorists are doing (Like other Moslawis).. I was this close to telling him that some people do like it after all (At least, that's what I've seen on Iraqi blogs). But then, come' on, he wouldn't have believed me..

He said: "Believe it, we're way worse than any other country.. I mean, we have occupation soldiers killing us, and terrorists killing us.. Now, where else have you heard such a thing?". As always, I keep silent whenever someone starts talking politics, it always comes out of me the wrong way when talking..

Did this ever occur to you.. People against terror are against coalition too..
No, my dear, it never occurred to a lot of people.
It may have occurred to some key people in our famously maligned Main Stream Media (MSM) because they have people on staff who can read more than one language.

I am curious to know if anyone besides Najma translates the signs in the pictures.
Maybe she's making it all up.
Right?

Update:

Nope, not exactly right.
She's not making it up, she's reading it in English.

I wrote Abu Khaleel, my cyber-friend in Iraq, and asked him to look at the pictures and comment. He was able to get an image large enough to discern that the signs mentioned were not translated but were in English. One sign says "something like 'The Saba'awi tribe supports Brig Gen Ali Al Mulawah and the security forces in combating terrorism'. Evidently, these people are kin showing support!!"

The comments thread at the Blackfive post eventually gets around to questioning the spontaniety of the demonstration as well as the signs that could be construed as not supportive of coalition forces.
As Blackfive points out, that is nothing more than an example of freedom of expression that the mission is fighting for. He is correct, of course.


The point is well-taken and I stand corrected in my misunderstanding.

I maintain, however, that bashing the press because they "failed" to publicize what seems to be an orchestrated demonstration strikes me as disingenuous. The avalanche of MSM-bashing and some of the snarky remarks left in the comments thread underscore my main point. Anyone speaking out in anything short of glowing support of our military adventure in Iraq does so at the risk of being labeled everything from moonbat to traitor.

Press coverage of the election, purple fingers and all that, was unabashedly enthusiastic.
[The press did seem to miss the Cedar revolution demonstrations in Lebanon a week later, so by the time the pro-Syrian, clearly orchestrated (no babes...you can tell, you know...) counter-demonstation was staged, the story was no longer hot.] But the embedded reporters, as well as independents like Michael Yon, seem to be doing a very creditable job of reporting the war.

1 comment:

Deborah White said...

I think you're correct...this is a hugely important story. Lots of conservative bloggers screaming that we're ignoring the progress being made in Iraq, and that there are Iraqis happy for the US (Coaliton?) presence.

But we can't ignore the horrendous violence, much less the disgraceful war profiteering going on over there by major US corporations.

It's a balance. But the story in your post is the naively hopeful or out-and-out willful misinterpretation of Iraqi protests.

I'm mulling over how to approach for About.com. Thank you, my friend, for calling it to my attention!