like, for example, in the 6 months prior to the invasion, when every news program on air featured at least one neocon/administration "official" blabbering hysterical propaganda and lies in response to softball setup questions, unopposed? of course they selectively report. the only solution to that is diversity of sources and freedom of expression -- coincidentally, exactly the things powell II, the fcc, and the neocons are fighting hardest to prevent.
Oh please, the media is so dominated by the left. There are about 400 media outlets pushing leftist propaganda and 3 pushing the right's. LOL. Yeah, we have real balance here. LMAO. I would hate to be manipulated by the right and their 3 media outlets. LOL. Oh man, thanks for the afternoon laugh.
The most intelligent comment in this discussion so far... ditto, now when the Saddam is gone who really cares about it? Not to mention that one would have to be a psycho to watch them even if they had been released...
I think the real issue is that when you ignore the warnings of those who know better than you, you goddamn well better make sure that your soldiers aren't in there doing the same EXACT things you sent them in there to end.
Where the hell have you been, anyway? All that shit except videos came out last spring when "we" invaded Iraq. All the polaroids, and a bunch of other shit. Some of the polaroids were even in Newsweek.
Liberal bias is often revealed by what is deemed "news" or how much prominence it is given. Anything that promotes liberal stereotypes is given prominent, uncritical treatment and items that contradict that agenda are typically ignored. It is instructive to compare the front pages of the Washington Times and Washington Post to see the difference. The saddam torture videos, like the Berg murder, did not fit the stereotype of an out of control, murderously incompetent US military, so they were one day stories. The prison hazing pictures fit that stereotype, plus had titillation value, so they are omnipresent. The media and congressional obsession with some minor misconduct in the context of a war where we have lost hundreds of troops to roadside bombs, snipers, ambushes ,etc shows their priorities are seriously adrift.
In case you haven't noticed, we have the dumbest, most corrupt, most hated by the world, and above all - WEAKEST president in American history. Now THAT is news. PS - If you consider forcing a prisoner to shove a banana up his ass whilst being videotaped "minor misconduct," I'm sure as shit glad I wasn't in your fraternity (or Dick Cheney's, since he said the same exact thing you did).
I know you're ultra young Bung (hey that was a JESSE JACKSON moment) but you're lack of history and perspective often shows. If you think going to war when you KNOW it's going to hurt you politically is a sign of weakness then your sense of measurement is way off. If nothing else Bush has the balls to piss off half the electorate and 3/4's of the world for what he believes is right. Stop buying into the inane left vs. Halliburton crap. Three companies in the world do that kind of work. One Russian, one French and then Halliburton. Who SHOULD get the contracts? Anyone who thinks that guys like Bush and Cheney would risk their place in history so they could leave their heirs a few mil extra is crazy. You may not want to believe it but there's a school of thought out there that thinks fundamentalist Islam is expansionist and in seek of global dominance. The two dozen or so democracies that are now fighting Islamic terror i.e. Malaysia, , The Philippines, Algeria, Thailand ect. give credence to the fact that there's a REAL problem brewing. Perhaps the war in Iraq was questionable. What is indisputable is the fact that the West must respond to growing insurgency or be doomed in less than a generation.
This first paragraph, I think, cuts into the heart of what's different between me and you: I see Bush as being too weak to stand up to "special interests" (not just corporations - I also mean the pro-Israel ideologues) and too stupid to stay in control of the people around him, like Wolfowitz and Cheney. I think that we can both agree that no politician, certainly no Republican, has ever done anything simply because it was "the right thing to do." Thus I've been skeptical of this whole Iraq thing from the beginning. And I have a special grudge against what I deem as the ultimate socialism: corporate charity. I'm surprised you aren't more offended by the subsidization of social interests by the US military. I think that there needs to be a complete and total division between private interests and the government. Farm subsidies are no different than this. Face it, it's always going to be some form of paranoia used by the neocons to foist large bills on the taxpayers. It was fascism in latin america in the 80s; now it's Islam. Both easy targets since the underlying victims are poor people that nobody gives a shit about. From questionable people come questionable motives. As for the other 2 paragraphs, all I can say is that poor people with nothing to lose are going to behave this way. The US and Israel have made themselves perfect targets for demagogues targeting these groups. "Just one lie after another..." http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/21/iraq.main/index.html U.S. admits to secret interrogation site in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As hundreds of detainees were released from Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, a senior U.S. official Friday confirmed that a previously undisclosed U.S. military interrogation facility at or near Baghdad International Airport does indeed exist.
Yes Bung, corporate charity galls me. I've always been genuinely anti military-industrial complex. In any other era I would be rallying against Bush. As a staunch conservative this is not my Utopia. However I really do believe that the Islamic threat has zero to do with either the U.S. or Isreal. I see eruptions of Moslem led violence for instance in SE Asia that are far removed from the Palestinian conflict. Not to mention that the U.S. aided Afghanistan during their war with the USSR and we divided Yugoslavia over civil war in Bosnia. The Islamic community gave us little credit. IMO we misread the fanatism and zeal that Islam breeds. If I thought the wand of appeasement would work I'd say wave it. I hate conflict. I just don't see anything globally that hints at detente' being a two-way street.