A few weeks ago at Wallace Presbyterian Church where I occasionally attend, a member returning from a tour of duty in Iraq briefly addressed the congregation about his experience in the theater of conflict. Most interesting of his comments was his observation of how the media is only telling part of the story by focusing almost exclusively on the violent malcontents.
Rather, this returning serviceman remarked how many of the Iraqis he dealt with were happy to have the American military there, especially those amongst the Christian population we seldom hear about. He also told the congregation about how many Iraqis were eager to attend worship services on the base where he was stationed but whose numbers had to be limited for security reasons. If U.S. forces were such brutal occupiers as the media would have the American people believe, I doubt Iraqis would come sing Christmas Carols to American troops as described by this soldier.
The brief testimony was informative and caused one to reflect upon the disparity between what is going on over there and the spin put on it by those in the establishment media propagating a competing foreign policy vision. More importantly, such an observation causes one to wonder why the media would forego its solemn obligation to provide a comprehensive summary of events in favor of the same take on things embraced by anti-American thugs and malcontents.
Could it be internationalists in the media actually want the terrorists to prevail in order to undermine America’s predominance in world affairs in favor of global agencies and institutions more in line with their socialistic agenda? They hope to accomplish their goal in part by creating sympathy for the very fanatics who share their goal of destroying Western Christendom.
Thing is, though, the laws of revolution dictate that eventually those seizing power will eventually turn on and consume their vocal advocates in the intelligentsia. Those rooting for the terrorist rabble would be among the first eliminated and their livelihood’s based upon the free propagation of ideas abolished should these fanatics ever come to power. (Apart from permitting multiple wives, I guess Islamist rule is not without a few other benefits.)
The events taking place at Abu Gahrib Prison won’t be recorded as the proudest moment in U.S. military history. But neither do such unfortunate incidents characterize all Iraqi encounters with American armed forces. For some kind of amicable reporte has had to be established arising from kindness on the part of Americans if civilized Iraqis are clamoring to experience our troops’ chapel services.
Copyright 2004 by
Frederick Meekins
No comments:
Post a Comment