The Absurd Report

I have cut and pasted several paragraphs from previous posts in an effort to emphasize the ongoing debate about Iraq. Much is being made in the debate about Iraq being in a state of Civil War.

From INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

NBC Has Its Own ‘Cronkite Moment’

WWIII: NBC calls Iraq a “civil war,” acknowledging that its decision could “erode” support for our effort there. Isn’t that the point? As in Vietnam, the media blame America first and become the enemy’s mouthpiece.

If Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s No. 2 terrorist and aide to Osama bin Laden, gets tired of his current post, he might try seeking the position of managing editor at NBC News. As al-Zawahiri wrote in a 6,000-word letter dated July 8, 2005: “(W)e are in a battle, and more than half this battle is in the media.”

On Monday, NBC officially defected to the other side.

From the Wall Street Journal

declare the war unwinnable, as if this were actually desirable

From INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

begging for it to happen

Almost as soon as Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003, the press, which by and large viewed the war as a mistake from the outset, began to issue dire warnings that the country was on the precipice of civil war. And reporters filed countless articles that framed the ensuing conflict in this light. Here are just a few examples:

• In March 2004, an Associated Press story about coverage of the war noted that many reporters have been suggesting that “Iraq is already descending into chaos and civil war.”

• In January 2005, Agence France Presse filed a dispatch with the headline: “Iraq In Danger Of Sliding Into Civil War.”

• In May 2005, anchorman Bob Schieffer told viewers of the “CBS Evening News” that “some fear Iraq is sliding toward civil war, with American forces caught in the middle.”

• In May 2005, AP reported that insurgent attacks were aimed at “stirring up civil war.”

• In May 2005, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., declared in a headline that “Iraq Risks Civil War.”

• In August 2005, the New Republic said “pessimists increasingly argue that Iraq may be going the way of Lebanon in the 1970s” and made the telling observation that “an Iraqi civil war really is the end of the debate about whether the decision to invade Iraq was justified.”

• In September 2005, the Independent in London warned that “Iraq civil war fears grow as sectarian violence spreads” and the Sunday Times said it was a “race against time to stop an Iraq civil war.”

• In October 2005, the Baltimore Sun reported that “Iraq faces imminent civil war as it approaches this week’s constitutional referendum.”

• An October 2005 New York magazine article said that “in the mainstream as well as on the left, there’s a growing fatalism about Iraq — if (it’s) not a civil war yet, the situation seems close to it.”

• In a November 2005 editorial, USA Today declared that Iraq was already in a “low-grade civil war.”

• In December, David Brooks warned in his New York Times column that “Iraq follows the pattern of civil war.”

So having predicted civil war for months and months, what choice did the mainstream media have except to declare that Iraq had finally proved them right?

SideBear: Is Iraq is in a state of ‘Civil War’ or is it in state of sectarian violence, does it really matter? What really matter here are the main stream media’s propaganda machines and the influence it has on the American public.

Certainly there are barbaric acts of violence being committed in and around Baghdad, some of it real and some of it hyped by careless media reporting.

But if there is a state of “Civil War” existing, it has been declared by the Main Stream Media against the sovereign state of The United States and its citizens here within.

There are two statements from the above that I find striking…….

more than half this battle is in the media

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s No. 2 terrorist and aide to Osama bin Laden, July 8, 2005.

Mr. Cronkite is often credited with helping turn public opinion against the war in Vietnam, and today’s media point seems to be to declare the war unwinnable, as if this were actually desirable. Source: Wall Street Journal

We are at a point in our history where the survival of Western Civilization and our way of life is at stake. The stakes couldn’t be higher and yet so many people who benefit and enjoy our way of life seem hell bent on destroying it.

I would like to ask Brian Williams of NBC, al-Reuters, al-UPI, al- New York Times and all the other leftists in this country one simple question, “Do you think living under Islamic Law is better than our present form of government?” “Are you so blinded by hatred of your country that you can not see that you are being used by the terrorists to overthrow the very society that allows you to live in the lap of luxury?” “Are you not concerned about your own security?”

I would not expect the media to become flag waving Americans but would it be too much to ask to stick to the facts and eliminate the distortions and falsehoods?

Fox VP on “Civil War”: We’re Not Falling Into That Trap

Fox News covered the debate over NBC’s grand “civil war” pronouncement in a segment on Special Report tonight that included a statement from Fox News VP John Moody:

MOODY STATEMENT: Some are using the term [civil war] to indicate failure, not inside Iraq, but of U.S. policy in Iraq. We’re unwilling to fall into that tender trap. We’re not using the term because there are non-Iraqis in the fray, and that makes it something different.

I think the last statement misses the real reason why NBC News has made the wrong call here. The presence of foreign jihadis is just one of many reasons why people can disagree over whether Iraq has descended into a state of full-blown civil war. NBC News chose to make, as CBS Evening News producer Rome Hartman put it, a “political statement” by pronouncing on an issue that is still the subject of considerable debate. “To indicate failure… of U.S. policy in Iraq” is one of the reasons why.

The other reason is this: The unofficial White House view of the American media is that they are unrepresentative of the public and driven by the left-leaning agenda of their elite. Members of the press have, to put it mildly, a very different view of their role in American democracy. As Allah pointed out yesterday, NBC News and the New York Times believe, and not without reason, that the election has given them cover to push back against the administration as hard as possible — an effort that has actually been intensifying since Katrina.

Call that whatever you want. Just don’t call it objectivity.

Hat Tip: The Media Blog