-- Robert Walpole, British parliamentarian, 18th Century
The U.S. news media, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that American public opinion has reached an impasse on the Iraqi War and related subjects and needs a break -- deserves a break -- from tedious details and graphic pictures of so-called success. The government agrees, and so should we.
Your morning paper or favorite news channel reiterates, let's all lighten up. Soon enough John McCain will hold the reigns and make everything okay again.
Still, listening to the news that's available, we find that:
-- Somehow, thanks to the "surge" of U.S. troops, the 'Awakening Councils' of mainly Sunni former insurgents, and the recently stiffened resolve of the Iraqi government and military forces, we have essentially "won the war."
-- But, if we leave, then "the terrorists will take over Iraq," according to Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, speaking on MSNBC Tuesday morning 2/26.
-- So, even though we've "won the war," we have to stay there, just like in Korea, Japan and Germany -- for "as long as it takes" -- even if it takes 100 years.
-- Meanwhile, Afghanistan is not mentioned much in the 'corporate media' these days, since we already won that war in 2002. A few media outlets and the growing sources of alternative news are reporting that we are closer to losing in Afghanistan than winning. Oh, the basics are reported by the media, but it doesn't lead the evening news broadcast anymore, or even rate an in-depth piece further into the program.
-- The absence of serious television coverage of Turkish military attacks against the PKK bases in northern Kurdistan to attack targets in southeast Turkey. It's as if the media's editors and managers just decided that the almost daily combat action is meaningless in the "overall scheme of things."
On this point, it's worth listening to Juan Cole's opinion today on Informed Comment:
"Unlike corporate US media, Aljazeera English is actually covering the Turkish-Kurdish issue and this clip includes interviews with politicians in Ankara and Irbil at the same time. Since it is all in English, you can't argue that the US news networks could not do the same thing if they cared to. It is sort of a racist practice in much of US corporate media that foreigners are almost never allowed to speak to an American audience with their own voices."
The day before, 2-25, Cole made this observation on his blog:
"John McCain is now not just saying that the US will be victorious in Iraq, he is saying flat out that 'the U.S. has succeeded in its war in Iraq'. McCain must have a special antonyms dictionary where words mean the opposite of what they mean. Or maybe he's depending on the US mass media not to tell the American public what is going on over there. He'd be making a pretty good bet; I watched a lot of news on Sunday and I barely saw Iraq mentioned. And this on a particularly violent day with a hot civil war and a Turkish invasion force on the ground. They spent hours on the cattier parts of the US presidential campaign."
Finally, while on the subject of foreign policy, we must note that the Bush Administration, lame duck or not, still has a lot of dangling threads that could blow up in our face. Time is running out for positive actions regarding states such as Venezuela and Cuba, although some progress is evident in North Korea. But the Middle East and South Asia remains a hotbed partly because of Washington's lack of interest in getting off its ass and doing its job. (To put it graphically.) The Israel - Palestine puzzle, of course, but what about new and old fires in Pakistan, Syria, Kosovo-Serbia, and Iran?
Is another year of drifting and missed opportunities on tap?
Are we on hold until a new president is sworn in?
Does anyone really care?
Don't we all deserve a break today?
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