Newsweek & the Koran
Nearly everyone is completely missing the most important aspect of the retracted Newsweek article claiming Guantanamo interrogators flushed a Koran down a toilet. Even if the story were true, is it newsworthy?
Think about it - a single military interrogator flushes a book down a toilet (violating army policy) and it makes Newsweek? This is not torture.
Would the media have cared if we "desecrated" Mein Kampf" in front of some Nazi's during WWII? Would it have been front page news if one soldier had ripped pages from the Communist Manifesto to blow his nose while interrogating a Soviet spy or an NVA sniper?
What is the difference? "Oh, but the Koran is holy". Is it more holy than the Bible? Does anyone think a flushed Bible would have caused rioting to break out anywhere in the world?
What's changed is our media now judge our acts by how our enemies react, no matter how irrational. The reason this was thought to be newsworthy is precisely because our enemies are so insane and that thier reaction would embarrass the military and the Bush administration. Not because anybody at Newsweek thinks the Koran is holy. The act is insignificant. The reaction was the goal, even if Newsweek got more than it bargained for.
This all falls under the same general philosophy of appeasement, we've seen from these same folks in the media - "don't do anything that might instigate anybody", "Don't bomb during Ramadan", "Send more foreign aid not soldiers".
But the media is exactly the ones doing the instigation, by running the false stories.
This seeming contradiction is no contradiction, at all. It is entirely consistent when you realize that the goal of many in the media and the Left in general, is to undermine our efforts in the Middle East, just like they did in Vietnam. They are not on our side.
The fact that our media is so ready to believe anything negative about the military or that that could damage the Bush Administration shows our own media has a peculiar and pathological desire to humble America.
This is particularly odd behavior by those who are most concerned about "America's standing in the world". This is a group who determine the morality of an action or policy not based upon any question of right or wrong, but on what the world's opinion of us is. This same group highlights any transgression this country does, ignores most of the good we do and even prints falsehoods in their zeal to discredit America.
Again, this apparent paradoxical behavior is actually consistent when you realize they are not on our side.
Newsweek didn't just owe the military an apology, they owe the entire country.
Think about it - a single military interrogator flushes a book down a toilet (violating army policy) and it makes Newsweek? This is not torture.
Would the media have cared if we "desecrated" Mein Kampf" in front of some Nazi's during WWII? Would it have been front page news if one soldier had ripped pages from the Communist Manifesto to blow his nose while interrogating a Soviet spy or an NVA sniper?
What is the difference? "Oh, but the Koran is holy". Is it more holy than the Bible? Does anyone think a flushed Bible would have caused rioting to break out anywhere in the world?
What's changed is our media now judge our acts by how our enemies react, no matter how irrational. The reason this was thought to be newsworthy is precisely because our enemies are so insane and that thier reaction would embarrass the military and the Bush administration. Not because anybody at Newsweek thinks the Koran is holy. The act is insignificant. The reaction was the goal, even if Newsweek got more than it bargained for.
This all falls under the same general philosophy of appeasement, we've seen from these same folks in the media - "don't do anything that might instigate anybody", "Don't bomb during Ramadan", "Send more foreign aid not soldiers".
But the media is exactly the ones doing the instigation, by running the false stories.
This seeming contradiction is no contradiction, at all. It is entirely consistent when you realize that the goal of many in the media and the Left in general, is to undermine our efforts in the Middle East, just like they did in Vietnam. They are not on our side.
The fact that our media is so ready to believe anything negative about the military or that that could damage the Bush Administration shows our own media has a peculiar and pathological desire to humble America.
This is particularly odd behavior by those who are most concerned about "America's standing in the world". This is a group who determine the morality of an action or policy not based upon any question of right or wrong, but on what the world's opinion of us is. This same group highlights any transgression this country does, ignores most of the good we do and even prints falsehoods in their zeal to discredit America.
Again, this apparent paradoxical behavior is actually consistent when you realize they are not on our side.
Newsweek didn't just owe the military an apology, they owe the entire country.
posted by Richard at
6:12 PM
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