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Is Fox News Supporting the Troops or the President?
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What fascinates me is how people at FOX News have convinced themselves that they’re “supporting the troops” while supporting the U.S. government’s continued occupation of Iraq. After all, no one can honestly still claim that the troops are dying for “freedom” because Saddam Hussein is now in jail. Moreover, according to Iraqi Shi'ite Sheik Raed Saadi, it is now Sunni and Shi'ite Muslems in Iraq who are uniting “to liberate” (his words) Iraq from the occupiers. “Well, they’re dying in the war on terrorism,” is now the response of FOX News commentators, embracing the government’s attempt to morph its unprovoked war of choice against Iraq into its “war on terrorism.” Pardon me, but isn’t there a difference between Middle East terrorists who are retaliating for prior acts of U.S. foreign policy and Iraqi insurgents who are simply resisting a foreign occupation of their country? Moreover, how can the installation of U.S. troops in a land thousands of miles away for the purpose of serving as a magnet for millions of people in that part of the world who hate the United States because of its brutal, deadly, and hypocritical decades-long Middle East foreign policy honestly be considered “supporting the troops”? And isn’t it possible that some of those people who are now killing American soldiers in Iraq are simply responding to President Bush’s “Bring it on!” taunt that he issued to all those nearby Middle East terrorists several months ago? What are U.S. soldiers in Iraq dying for now? They’re dying to maintain a brutal military occupation, an occupation whose mission is to prevent what President Bush calls a “power grab” of Iraqis trying to oust a U.S.-appointed puppet ruling regime known as the Iraqi Governing Council, a council that includes the U.S.-appointed Ahmed Chalabi, who hadn’t been in Iraq for 45 years, who just happens to on the lam for a conviction for bank fraud and embezzlement in Jordan, who is proud that he misled America into falsely believing that Saddam Hussein still possessed weapons of mass destruction, and whose pockets are currently being stuffed with $350,000 in U.S. taxpayer money every single month. Shouldn’t the commentators at FOX News be piercing themselves with some critical questions regarding their “support of the troops” in Iraq? Why are the occupation of Iraq and the installation of a corrupt U.S.-appointed puppet regime there worth dying for? Why are they worth sacrificing the life of even one U.S. soldier for? Indeed, why are they worth killing for? What exactly is the relative worth that FOX News puts on the lives and psychological well-being of the troops they claim to support? More fundamentally, of course, U.S. troops are killing and dying in Iraq because U.S. officials, including the president and others in his administration, the Pentagon, and certain members of Congress, with the full support of some of the FOX News commentators, sent them into a hotbed of rattlesnakes in Iraq for the purpose of accomplishing a “regime change,” a goal that has turned into a deadly trap for U.S. troops from which there is now no escape, at least not before the November elections. For U.S. officials know that if the occupation troops are withdrawn, the result might well be worse than having left Saddam Hussein (a former U.S. government ally) in power, which could obviously jeopardize the president’s bid for reelection. Moreover, let’s not forget that those who are ambushing and attacking U.S. troops in Iraq might be more motivated by their causes — the ouster of a foreign occupier from their land and vengeance for many years of a deadly and hypocritical U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East — than U.S. troops are motivated by the cause that U.S. officials have assigned to them — the installation of a U.S.-approved puppet regime in Iraq. So excuse me for asking an indelicate and perhaps trite question, but with friends like FOX News “supporting the troops,” who needs enemies?
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va.
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