Saturday, April 15, 2006
Iraq and Bush League analysis: the media keeps up its incessant war against the Iraqi operation
Distorting reality and facts
by Ferdinand III
The Bush League media parade against all things American and in particular against fighting fascist Islam at its source – the Middle East – ignores all boundaries of reality. One premise seems to be that doing nothing which for 40 years was tried and resulted in 9-11, is a nobler and more humane method of dealing with fascist Islam and terror than actually defending civilization. A second premise is that Iraq, the Middle East and Arab dominated parts of the world, were peaceful until the Christian cowboy George Bush took power. This ignores 1400 years of bloody Islamic reality. Islam in any form, wherever it has spread in the world has never been peaceful. It is clearly an ideology of control and war. A third premise seems to be that the Iraq of the 1990s extended into 2006 would be a better place. This is obviously absurd. Underlying these 3 false concepts is the incredibly anti-American view of the Iraqi war and the disturbingly negative view of all events. Iraq’s economy and death toll are obvious examples. Witness the below.
According the media Iraq is a mess. How then to explain the fact that Iraq’s economy is growing at 34% on average per annum? Sure the base was low, but it is tough to see why the media does not report the good news about economic growth, freedom of association and free speech, and the rapidly improving infrastructure – including full Iraqi control over oil. Here is a press release from the US forces in Iraq:
[Ambassador Daniel Speckhard, U.S. Director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office]:
“Iraq's per capita income had fallen from around $4,200 per person in 1980, which at the time was higher than Spain, to $500 per person in March 2003, he said. Today it stands at $1,200 - ‘a significant advancement in a very short time,’ Speckhard said.
“Speckhard pointed out that Iraq now has a free press, more than 2,000 Internet cafes, and more than 5 million cell phone users - up from virtually zero in 2003. All of these things help connect Iraq to the outside world ‘in ways that it never was before, providing freedom and opportunities for Iraqi citizens,’ he said. “In addition, more than 30,000 Iraqi businesses have been registered in the past year alone…”
Now switch over and see how Reuter’s reports this with similar stories all over the mainstream media.
“Iraqis' economic woes add to desperation”
“Iraqis may now have mobile phones and internet cafes, but they have seen few real economic benefits since the fall of Saddam Hussein three years ago and are far poorer than they were before the first Gulf War.
Staying alive remains the first priority for Iraqis in a country which some say is teetering on the brink of civil war. But improving the economy would go a long way to boosting public morale and could even help curb the relentless violence.
The figures show that goal is a long way off.
While World Bank statistics demonstrate per capita income rose from $479 in 2003 when U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to an estimated $1,188 in 2005, that compares with $3,240 in 1980.
And Iraqis themselves paint a picture of unremitting economic woe.”
So the mainstream media paints the economic rebirth and formation of a freedom based civil and economic society as a disaster. Not for them the market and social reforms of 2003 to 2006! Much better was the heyday of 1980 fascism! For the media elite and jet set crowd, rebuilding a failed fascist nation state in the heart of Islam should be done over the long weekend. Not only do the teeth and hair crowd ignore all the progress that is being made in the 80% of Iraq that is peaceful, but they ignore the costs of doing nothing.
Containment and letting the nexus of money and terrorist connections that was the pre 2003 Iraq to continue was not cost free. The costs of containment during the 1990s were more per annum in money and in human life lost then the current ongoing costs of about $100 billion per year. At least now going forward Iraq will control its own future – including that of oil, the riches of which will stimulate social progress and wealth. Consider also the deaths by violence. Since 2003 about 30,000 Iraqi civilians have been murdered by fascist terrorists. But this pales in comparison to what occurred between 1980 and 2003 where 500.000 or so lost their lives – a kill rate 3 times more than today. But the media never reports such facts.
The media’s war against the Iraqi operation is endless in the depth of its spite and the extravagance of its contortions of facts. There is simply no objective coverage of what is going on in a failed fascist state that should have been invaded in 1991 after the First Gulf War. Not completing the job in 1991 led to the UN Oil for Food scandal and $60 billion in corruption including the funding of the current Iraqi ‘insurgency’ and terrorist groups; hundreds of billions in containment costs; Al Ansar of Al Qaida training in northern Iraq; and of course the constant threat of attacks against Israel and Western assets in the Middle East.
It is okay to criticize the Iraqi war, strategy and tactics. But this must be done with some objectivity, balanced analysis and appreciation of reality. If not the entire course of this war and the future of civilization might go astray.