American Journalism In The Toilet While Our Troops Are At War
I am getting really tired of our media. American media is so biased it is sickening. Most of mainstream media leans towards one political side. I saw it during the campaigning and it was outrageous. What happened to objective journalism? It's not seen very often here in America anymore. If I were in journalism, I would be very sad to see this. If I were in journalism, I'd be ashamed of myself for not presenting fair and balanced reporting! I want to see the good, bad, and the ugly...not just the ugly.
So, I decided today I was going to go looking for some reporting on the other side - - you know, the side most of America's media ignores.
Here is what I found on United World:
"There are a lot of people in the US, especially the Democrats, who downplay any success in Iraq simply because they are at odds with the Bush administration, they want to portray Iraq as a failure because they see Bush as a failure" said Hayder, who believes that there should be no correlation between politics and doing what is morally right by helping the Iraqi people. "You can hate Bush if you want, but just admit that what he did in Iraq turned out for the better. Better for Iraq, better for America and better for the world"
"Iraq has started to reap the benefits of the status of forces agreement with the United States. The United Nations Security Council voted to set the ground for relieving Iraq from the restrictions of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter.
In fact, the remaining effects of previous resolutions will from now on serve only to protect Iraq’s assets from claims by other parties, not to impose anything on the people of Iraq. Sovereignty, which was lost two decades ago under Saddam Hussein’s capricious and belligerent reign, is being restored to the nation.
Domestically, the resolution is a blow dealt to all those nostalgic for the totalitarian past. Those people had exhausted their lungs screaming and rallying against a security agreement with the United States. The voice that prevailed at the end was that of Iraq’s elected parliament in choosing to open a new era of cooperation and mutual respect between Iraq and the nation that liberated it from tyranny, and continues to protect its interests as we speak.
Whereas Arab nationalists and Islamist extremists ended up with a pair of shoes, Iraqis ended up with their sovereignty, democracy, and friendship with the United States. Those hypocrites did not lift a finger to help Iraq at a time of hardship. On the contrary, they used all the means they could muster to bring democratization in Iraq and the Middle East to a halt. But despite the vicious attacks, Iraq and the United States moved hand in hand to overcome the countless obstacles and present the model of reform and democracy that is taking shape with every dispute Iraqis resolve in the parliament and every new brick they lay in a new building."
There was just a new school for girls built in Iraq with troop support. Where is the U.S. coverage of that?
How about Saddam Hussein's crimes? Here are some details from The War Crimes of Saddam Hussein:
"...issue a memorandum decreeing that anyone whose ideas came into conflict with those of the Baath Party leadership would be subject to summary execution."
"...Hussein long viewed ethnic Kurds as a long-term threat to Iraq's survival, and the oppression and extermination of the Kurds was one of his administration's highest priorities."
"...ordering the slaughter of some 148 residents, including dozens of children."
"...Hussein had some 8,000 members of Barzani's clan, including hundreds of women and children, abducted. It is assumed that most were slaughtered; thousands have been discovered in mass graves in southern Iraq."
"...Hussein's administration called for the extermination of every living thing--human or animal--in certain regions of the Kurdish north. All told, some 182,000 people--men, women, and children--were slaughtered, many through use of chemical weapons. "
"...Hussein's regime killed as many as 2,000 suspected Kurdish rebels every day. "
"...Wartime rhetoric regarding Hussein's "rape rooms," death by torture, decisions to slaughter the children of political enemies, and the casual machine-gunning of peaceful protesters accurately reflected the day-to-day policies of Saddam Hussein's regime. Hussein was no misunderstood despotic "madman." He was a monster, a butcher, a brutal tyrant, a genocidal racist--he was all of this, and more."
Just google Saddam Hussein genocide and read for yourself.
Why did the entire world allow him to remain in power so long? What shame they should feel. How many U.S. Presidents knew and did nothing?
Why didn't the Iraqi people stand up and help themselves? Perhaps after reading all the mass butchering Saddam Hussein did above, it gives a little better understanding. I'd like to think we would've done different had we been in that place but who knows? The abused spouse stays to be abused for years...perhaps it was the same mind set - fear, shame, broken sense of self worth, lack of helpful resources.
Whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, this man was one disgusting excuse for a human (I won't say evil because then some will turn this into a religious discussion and that's not what this is). Whether he had ties to Al Qaeda or not, he was a nasty piece of work. Was it the right time for the U.S. to do it when they did? No, they should have done it a couple decades earlier with world-wide support. Should Bin Laden have been put out of his misery first? Yeah, probably. Sniper bullet anyone? That piece of crap should be dead by now. Was this war planned right on the part of our former President and his people? No, I will say that it was not well thought out. Are we carrying a huge financial burden because of the war? Damn right we are. Is war ever nice and pretty? Hell no. Do I think we would have seen more terrorist attacks on our own soil had this not been done? Yes, I do.
Have you seen a mass grave before?
Every leader across the world should be standing up and doing something about this type of atrocity directed at other humans in countries around the world that we aren't hearing about, that doesn't make front-page news like the dress of the First Lady does (go to a celebrity news show or celebrity blog for that, not CNN or FOX). We all need some downtime for more frivolous stuff like that to give our minds a break from the real world but I don't want to see it on Headline News or the like during war time.
Why aren't more news organizations talking to the troops in the Middle East and publicizing it? Why don't they put on their news shows what our troops are telling them - about the good they are doing, about the thanks they get?
Our troops are brave and strong. Any young man or woman who enlists in the military during a time of war shows great courage. Did you know there are troops volunteering for another tour in Iraq? I hope when they return, that they are met with love and support and given the resources that heroes deserve. I can't imagine the horrors they've seen and what they will live with when they return - mentally, physically, and financially. I hope their families are being shown support while their loved one is overseas.
War isn't pretty. It is sad, horrible. I wish Saddam had been taken down with a sniper's bullet myself but I hope that as ugly as the media portrays things here in the United States, that as the troops come home and are allowed to speak out, as they write books and blogs and perhaps find some objective person in the media (good luck with that), that we will hear more of the good that they did.
I don't have great political knowledge running around my head. I am a work-at-home/stay-at-home mother with children that I want to grow up safe with the freedoms that were hard fought for. I don't pretend to know everything. I have my own opinions and I give them. I hope every media outlet in the United States who doesn't report objectively sees me flipping them the bird right now.
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