On the accidental Koran urine-splashing
Cannibalizing from my own comments again, from Roger's:
As I went to my computer today, and my home page came up (Yahoo news), and I saw that the lead story (AP, naturally) was headlined, "U.S.: Gitmo Quran Was Splashed With Urine," I felt (and still feel) the strangest combination of weariness and anger.
I have become convinced that these stories will continue until the MSM gets what it wants. What it wants seems to be the election of Democrats. What it may get instead is the undermining of Western civilization and the tradition of the Enlightenment, I kid you not.
Sorry to be so gloomy, but this story crossed some line I didn't even know existed, with its absurd and self-destructive digging up and flaunting and trumpeting of anything--anything--that could get the US, Bush, and the military in trouble. Next it will be dust: "two US military personnel let dust blow on the Koran at Gitmo," and thoughtcrime, "Five Guantanamo guards lusted in their hearts about defecating on the Koran." Lost in the whole thing (of course!) is the fact that these prisoners are given Korans in the first place.
The Islamofascists can cut back on their budget for propaganda. The US press is doing the job far better than they ever could.
I'll calm down soon, I imagine, and this will join the long list of similar incidents that I hope, in the end, will not matter. But why is the press so determined to make the task of protecting ourselves as hard as possible?
I'm still reading Radical Son, and have gotten to the part dealing with how the press and the left protected the thuggier elements of the Black Panthers back in the Seventies. Remember radical chic? There does seem to be a consistent and time-honored concern on the part of the press and the left, dedicated to the protection of terrorists, nihilists, or anyone "underprivileged" or of the third-world who advocates violence--protection from any hint of offense or mistreatment even of the mildest (and most accidental!) sort.
posted by neo-neocon @ 12:45 PM
39 comments
39 Comments:
[I'll cannibalize mine, too. ;) ]
neo-neocon: I had the same reaction, but in an even more pessimistic key. Have we lost? Is the country this stupid? Even if the populace isn't, Bush seems deeply tangled in the nonsense himself.
Is Gitmo optimally arranged to extract intelligence from the enemy combatants we have there? If not, why not? How many of us have to die before it is?
You aren't alone in your feelings this morning. The MSM is will continue to utilize this "kamikaze" journalistic technique in order to shape public opinion. Somewhere along the line, though, there will be a backlash.
Thanks for this... I saw that same headline several times yesterday, and each time it made me more angry. I'm so annoyed I can't even articulate it. You did a fine job.
" ... why is the press so determined to make the task of protecting ourselves as hard as possible?"
The press is behaving like it always behaves. It's a strong-flowing river. Getting all wound up about it is pointless.
Expecting all reporters, editors, news outlets, blogs, witnesses and gossipers to focus on the positive and toe the line is, in a word, escapist.
YES, YES, YES, (oh and did I mention YES). I am so sick of this nonsense and yet demoralized that the stupid MSM keeps putting this crap (speaking of defecation...excuse my language) out there!!! These kinds of stories give me such a headache because they seem to defy giving due credence to the logical stuff. You know, little facts like why are there even copies of the Koran around if this prison is so cruel and inhumane. I, too, really worry for our country because it's as if the MSM has declared war against the better interests of the United States.One keeps thinking and hoping that they will reverse course but they are in the throes of a powerful force that I don't think even they understand and the result for our country might be tragic and costly. Maybe I'm overreacting but it's so wearing.
I'm with you, neoneocon.
I think there are massive hunks of the population that really don't give a damn about the koran, and could give a (excuse the language) a rat's ass less about what happened to did not happen to it.
On the other hand, headlines like that could be taken to mean that any other news of significance which would reflect negatively on the Administration's efforts must be going swimmingly.
I also agree with "someone" above that Gitmo seems to have become just a tad bit too gracious to its guests. If I were in charge, I would immediately remove all Korans from the premisis since they have become a serious distraction to the business at hand.
Torture.
You are all killing the messenger. This is just all deepthroat backlash, because you can't stand the fact that the press had a hand in bringing down Nixon and you'll do anything to make sure it won't happen again. What you don't realize is that Nixon brought down Nixon, and it's not the media who make Bush look bad, but it's Bush who makes Bush look bad.
I guess Happy Hour hasn't started in Portland, yet. Or, that was Mo Dowd posting.
Brad,
Why the personal attacks? That's really too bad.
Neo-neocon: Thanks for putting my feelings on this topic so plainly.
I'd like to send of copy of this post to the major MSM players - 5 times a day, every day - or until such time as they finally realize that we really, really don't give a toss about these maniacs' percieved issues about mishandling of the Koran or anything else for that matter.
Is it any wonder that the MSM are losing readers/subscribers/viewers at a record rate? Is it possible they can't be aware that this sort of thing is a main contributing factor to their irrelevance and lack of credibility?
Just another reason to tune them out for good.
All this nonsense started with the "flushing the Koran down the toilet" stories. Now CNN.com reports that it was the Islamist Gitmo detainees themselves who flushed pages torn from the Koran.
Now that we know the Afghanistan riots weren't about the Newsweek report, and now that we know the detainees do worse to the Koran without getting upset, it appears the whole thing is a scam.
Portlandpundit lists A People's History of the United States as a favorite book. My goodness. But wait, there is a cure: vouchers and home schooling. The messengers must be attacked!
Countercolumn News Network - Three former U.S. guards at Guantanamo responsible for alleged Koran desecration will recieve a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, officials said today.
I also like this take at Countercolumn.
It’s only going to get worse. From the AP (via the Wash. Post), last Friday, June 3, 2005; 9:25 AM (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060300477_pf.html):
"NEW YORK -- A judge has ordered the government to release four videos from Abu Ghraib prison and dozens of photographs from the same collection as photos that touched off the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal a year ago.
The federal judge issued the order late Wednesday requiring the Army to release the material to the American Civil Liberties Union to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.
The ACLU said the material would show that the abuse was 'more than the actions of a few rogue soldiers.'
Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the 144 pictures and videos can be turned over in redacted form to protect the victims' identities. He gave the Army one month to release them."
Too early to say we’re doomed?
I agree that the endless repetition of stories like this is extremely frustrating and even depressing.
But at this point I tend to be optimistic in terms of the changing media. I think average American is able to discern what is important news and what isn't, and they certainly don't have the myopic anti-American zeal of the average journalist.
As a result, the New Media will simply continue to take up more an more of the market share and crowd out the Leftist voice of the Old Media that has dominated for so long. Or at least provide more and more balance.
Thanks,neo. you describe the seemingly time-honored practice by the MSM /left of defending & protecting violent/nihilists.
you discuss this in your Viet nam series. many journalists/leftists appear to be locked into that identity, sometimes seeming like angry teenagers. Disagreement with policy is one thing, but the endless reporting of koran splashing-trampling-improper-touching is just absurd. reporting just the facts? nonsense. In it's tone and quantity, it's become propoganda. Trash the American military. Trash the current administration. Trash America. Then bring in the warm & fuzzy, far more humane UN-loving democrats to save us.
knoxgirl--I agree that, as time goes on, more and more Americans are rejecting this sort of thing.
But it continues its effect worldwide. Decades of this sort of activity on the part of the highly respected MSM, the BBC, etc. (plus people such as Michael Moore being the darling of the European lecture circuit) have taken their toll, and contributed mightily (not caused, but contributed) to the virulence of anti-Americanism around the world.
The left is just as suspicious of the media as you all seem to be.
9/11 severed the corpus collosum of your culture's collective mind, spawing echo chambers such as this blog, where visitors make absurd generalizations -- really, really absurd generalizations -- about the integrity of the other half of the brain.
It's fascinating! Thanks for the entertainment.
More -- much more -- insane and dangerous grandstanding to follow.
Due process rights? They're noncitizens who've never touched US soil. They have no rights. Meanwhile, who's going to run an inquiry as to the efficacy of this setup, or the setup Specter and friends want to impose on us? No one, until many more Americans die.
Chuck,
You forgot One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Great Gatsby, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
"We are really engaged in a clash of civilizations ..."
Yes, Paul, precisely.
Brad, you're a university prof? What's your last name? Where do you teach? What's your field?
Ouch, Brad, that was awkward.
Speaking of Ward Churchill and the echo chamber phenomenon, why doesn't everybody stretch their legs and read the notorious essay itself? The link includes press coverage and post-game analysis.
The left's problems with the media are a tad more involved. This site covers the issue from the left's pov: Democracy Now.
btw, 9/11 did alienate American citizens from one another, I find that tragic, this is an echo chamber, echo chambers are full of people making outrageous generalizations about the left/right, the culture war is fascinating and some places, such as this site, are entertaining.
Sorry.
3:27
9/11 severed the corpus collosum of your culture's collective mind, spawing echo chambers such as this blog,...
It's fascinating! Thanks for the entertainment.
Wow, God dropped by. Hey God, glad to oblige. Should we sacrifice a goat or something?
The thing that's so amusing about trolls who come to this blog is that they consistently ignore a defining trait of its author and many of the frequent commentors here: these are people who have come, slowly, often painfully, to change their minds on complex issues. Most remain stalwart liberals in many areas, but have come to identify themselves as "neocons" in the area of foreign policy. This is the context in which all discussion takes place here.
All of which makes it entertaining to us when someone stops by to drop smarta*s comments like "echo-chamber" or "stretch your legs."
This is one of the FEW blogs you will find on politics that has people who do not necessarily identify strictly as Liberal or Conservative, and think for themselves, not along party lines.
In contrast, the trolls who post here often dismiss the discussion as closed-minded and reactionary--simply because they disagree!
Please go troll on some partisan site, where you know what you're talking about and are safe making such asinine comments.
Sorry.
It is time for the U.S. to comply 100% with the Geneva Convention. Take all the prisoners out of Gitmo, give them each a Koran to hold over their heart, and shoot them through the Koran. They were all captured on the field of battle without a uniform. The law is the law. Also, give the field commanders the authority to shoot, on the spot, every person they capture on the field of battle without a uniform. Give the ACLU and Am-nasty international credit for the change in policy. I will forward this recommendation to my Senators tomorrow so they can debate the policy change when the nuts bring up the so called abuse at Gitmo.
This story has now achieved the "Terri Schiavo" critical mass. The only question now is just how it will explode.
The possibilities (that I thought of):
1) Michael Isikoff will become the target of a "urine splashing"
2) as a show of ecumenism, "Piss Christ" will be put on exhibition at Gitmo
3) Newsweek will be surrounded by angry Muslims carrying Qurans
4) officials of Amnesty International will be jailed at Gitmo
5) readership of newspapers will continue to plummet.
Good response to the trolls, knoxgirl. Unfortunately I can't imagine it will make a particle of difference.
Thanks Knox girl!
I live on the upper west side of manhattan where there also lives a man who in several op-eds in the NYSUN calls himself Mr X. A former Democrat now Republican, his change of mind applies specifically to foreign policy of the current admin vs that of the John
Kerry/kennedy/Pelosi/UN-loving group.X has described the awkwardness, the shunning, the smug groupthink atmosphere of friends and collegues when he voiced his new position. Dozens of other NYers have written the The Sun in support. Thanks for pointing out the layer of experience that informs the opinions of those of us who relate to neo-ness.
Has anyone noticed the inconsistency in the left's demand for sensitivity toward Islam on the one hand and for complete separation of church and state on the other? No one on the left would ever condone deliberate effort by the state not to offend, let alone to respect, Jewish or Christian sensitivities. There's no amount of humiliation that Christians and Jews aren't asked to bear by the left, which reserves for itself the right to defame Judaism and Christianity at will. At the same time, there's no amount of unintended slight toward the religious beliefs of Islamic extermists that the left will accept the way it often accepts deliberate acts of violence toward Christians and Jews. The contradiction shows an intellectual perversity and moral depravity that truly is frightening to me.
I have found myself equally frustrated by this never ending story.
While you are correct in your comments regarding the Democrats (Socialists), I fear that our enemies will continue to use such tactics in the future.
I have posted several essays on this event and given my thoughts from my perspective here in a Muslim country.
An American Expat in Southeast Asia
Ho Chi Minh:
If they don't have to engage in all their defaming then why do they devote such a huge amount of time and effort to it? Might add that with a hundred million+ murdered in the last century and all the other lives wasted as well that lefties are one to speak about doing 'a fine job on their own'. Which is another reason lefties need to devote so much time to public relations. -differnt anonymous
I hear all of you, truly.
knoxgirl, that may be the context of the conversation, but the content is a rose.
And a rose is a rose is a rose.
Sigh.
9/11 did alienate American citizens from one another, I find that tragic, this is an echo chamber, echo chambers are full of people making outrageous generalizations about the left/right, the culture war is fascinating and some places, such as this site, are entertaining.
chuck, the rose is a metaphor.
3:27
Ho Chi Minh: Bit of a shell game you're playing there. Maybe call yourself P. T. Barnum instead of Ho Chi Minh. You'll have to find some other dog to fetch your sticks. That's what i'm telling you Ho Chi Barnum.
Consider yourself pinged.
http://bdroppings.blogspot.com/2005/06/definitive-proof-of-quranqurankoran.html
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