Antiwar.com Blog

Military news programs secure a public outlet

Pentagon Channel programs cover a wide range of issues, but you’re not likely to see much coverage of controversial military topics such as the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal or the secret military tribunals of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. And that, some media analysts say, could be problematic.

“There’s nothing wrong with the military bringing this onto the base,” said Robert Snyder, director of Rutgers University-Newark’s journalism and media Studies program in New Jersey. “But broadcasting Pentagon programs on a public access cable channel is basically going to be the equivalent of a public relations channel intruding into the public sphere. They shouldn’t be broadcast and published out into the general world as if they were an independent source of journalism.”

One of the most vocal opponents of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, William Rivers Pitt of Truthout, has fallen into the trap set by the War Party.

Pitt declares:

If we haul stakes and leave, we risk having the country collapse permanently into a Balkanized state of civil and religious war that will help to create a terrorist stronghold in the mold of Afghanistan post-1989.

This is the trap the War Party sets every time they invade a country. They create a quagmire, then argue that it will be a disaster if we leave.

During the Vietnam War, many in the Antiwar Movement argued against immediate, unconditional US withdrawal for exactly the same reason, that it would create chaos. Cries of “Negotiations Now” competed with the principled “Out Now” stance of committed antiwar activists.

But Pitt forgets this important point: the US has no right to control the future of the Iraqi people, at any time. His argument that we can’t let Iraq become a balkanized or unstable government is identical to the neocons’ current argument for staying in Iraq.

Pitt asks to hear feedback from his supporters on what to do to resolve his dilemma:

It truly is a perfect storm Bush and his friends have dropped us into, and there are no easy answers. “Leave now!” is the wrong answer, but so is “Stay!”

Please tell him.

Take Jonathan’s disgusting quiz!

The largest Greyhound bus has 55 passenger seats. How many busses does it take to bus a half-million person protest in from Syria?

Some warbloggers need to know. Here.

Oh, and this makes it even trickier. Those wily Syrians bussed in a half million men! All the protesters were men! The warbloggers know this because they’ve looked at all the pictures.

This is a classic “Good versus Evil” match-up, and it’s why we must be willing to support the anti-Syrian side with EVERYTHING we got!

AND ANOTHER THING: Were all those angry pro-Syrian men Lebanese?
[..]
THEREFORE, I think ONE MUST CONCLUDE that many MANY MANY of the Hizballah men demonstrating were Syrian – or Palestinian Arabs from the UN refugee camps. (AT LEAST HALF!)

That’s ANOTHER reason we must support the pluralistic, pro-democracy – LEBANESE side over the pro-Syrian forces!

See? It’s all logical and everything, and besides, if Glen Reynolds linked to it, it must be true.

And if Instamonger linked to it, well would other warbloggers be far behind?

UPDATE: Welcome ROGER L. SIMON readers! And if you’re not one yet – YOU SHOULD BE – – EVERYDAY! And… WELCOME INSTAPUNDIT READERS! Glenn has other links on this issue – including one to a new AP story that suggests some cross-border busing – CHECK IT OUT! UPDATE #2: Welcome all you folks from NRO’s The Corner – and thanks KJ! Please y’all check out a few other posts!

UPDATE: This informative comment was left in the thread following the above quoted post. Thanks to all the Antiwar readers who countered the poor hysterical Bushie in his comments.

lebanon. if the truth is what you want. i saw the marchers heading out to the rally. they were men, women and some children. the call was out to 30 political parties. there were christians and sunnis, druez and commies… you name it and the lebanese parties were there. the intent of the rally was three fold. 1. to thank syria, the soldiers they lost, blood they shed to help lebanon. 2. to make a statement to the u.n., rejecting res. 1559. 3. to voice their opinion that we need to get to the truth on the murder of hariri. maybe the concept of 1mil. participants is mind-blowing but when looking at the real crowd, it could well be that many people. the congestion was all throughout the country. this is a country who’s land mass is virtually eaqual to mi.’s upper penninsula. so you can walk to downtown in a half hour. the roads were clogged with teenagers all pumped up, which is different than angry. there was also, an important fact ignored by all the media, not one single incident of violence against a woman or a man, by security or the army or the police. this is a country that g.w. would have the world believe was a country not ruled by law. lebanon is special, the lebanese are special people. the war has made them willing, willing to live and willing to die. i believe that the lebanese people want syria as a friendly neighbor, who will kick-ass if anyone wants to try anything. syria is not perfect, but it has a history and future linked with lebanon.
# posted by sincerely : 9:32 AM

sincerely appears to be starting a blog named lebanon. We’ll have to keep an eye on that one.

From the Times:

AMERICAN soldiers in Iraq are being given “anti-fratricide” training to reduce the number of friendly fire attacks against British and other coalition troops, The Times has learnt.

Thirty-two “blue-on-blue” attacks on British and other coalition vehicles have been logged in the past twelve months in southern Iraq, Britain’s area of responsibility.

The training was revealed as Washington and Rome announced a joint inquiry into the killing last week of an Italian secret agent when US troops opened fire on the car in which he was accompanying a freed hostage to Baghdad airport.

The inquiry was announced by General George Casey, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, after Gianfranco Fini, the Italian Foreign Minister, had highlighted differences between the American and Italian versions of the incident.

Nicola Calipari, an experienced hostage negotiator, was killed as he protected Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist, who had been held for a month.

On the same day, a 30-year-old Bulgarian machinegunner was shot and killed in a second friendly fire incident, for which US forces were also blamed.

The vast majority of the 32 reported incidents involved American troops opening fire at night-time against suspected insurgents who turned out to be friendly forces, on or near the main route through southern Iraq used by US convoys.

Military officials in Basra, where the British-controlled Multinational Division (Southeast) is based, said that the “vehicle blue-on-blue incidents” in the period from February last year had resulted in ten minor injuries. “There have been no fatalities,” one said.

The officials declined to spell out the injuries received or whether they were all British soldiers, but they confirmed that most of the “firing nationalities” were American. A small number of incidents involved Romanian and Bulgarian troops opening fire.

US commanders were so worried that their men were shooting at the British because they failed to recognise the Union Jack or other distinguishing military markings that, in an unprecedented move, they asked the British Army to supply vehicles, men and flags to teach their soldiers what their allies looked like.

It is understood that the British supplied several “snatch” armoured Land Rovers, the most common vehicle used by British troops on patrol and senior non-commissioned officers, with Union Jacks, to instruct the Americans.

In Backtalk:

Greg Brownfield: deliberate irrationalism is one of the pillars of fascism — & the Bushies have rejected the “reality-based community.”

Scott Erb, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Maine at Farmington: Democracy or Republic? Democracy does not mean majoritarianism.

Steve Barrett: Just say no to the ASVAB.

Matthew Barganier: And the special skills draft.

David Wilmsen, Contributing Editor, Transnational Broadcasting Studies, Arabic and Translation Studies, The American University in Cairo: Lebanon already IS a democracy.

Scott Horton: And Israel isn’t.

And more…

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World democratic revolution or Pentagonistan?: The CIA is airmailing people to prisons in the world’s worst human rights abusing dictatorships.