Some have suggested that the Americans might be blamed while Iraqis use chemical weapons on their own population. Could it be the other way round? Who is cynical?
We have been hearing news that are far from truth and even the western media has started to question some of the claims.
We have heard claims of uprising in Basra in the news while the Arabic channels and the phonic conversation of families aired on BBC radio suggests otherwise. Could it be possible that by suggesting “UPRISING IN BASRA” a heavy bombardment, including the JDAM bombs, was made possible? Basra was not a military target coz it would endanger the life of civilians. It is a military target now. Could it be possible that these “civilians” wanna fight against the aggressors of their country?
Other have suggested that the factory found in Iraq was indeed a chemical weapons factory coz it had sand-cast walls. It hasn’t been proven yet and the report of this has been down played by the US and UK government. Was he cynical or was he correct in assuming that? What were the intentions of the initiator of these reports that uprising has started? Was he successful or am I cynical?
I hear and see that civilians have been killed, which are dis-regarded as Iraqi propaganda. I know for a fact that the “smart” bombs have been hitting people in Syria, Turkey and Iran and even British helicpters and soldiers. Why the US coalition needed to bombard the Iraqi TV? It gives me a reason to be cynical about the heavy bombardment of Baghdad and Basra and I strongly believe that it must have killed a lot of innocent civilians. The list goes on for a lot of news from Tariq Aziz defected to Saddam got killed.
I did ask that hypothetically, but the point I was asking was if something like that happend would U.S. be culpable because we went into the country in the first place.
If your asking if I am cynical because I am acccusing Iraq of having WMD, I may have come across that way, but the fact is I just don't know.
I don't know that I completely trust any of the accounts of what is happening over there. It seems to be a media frenzy IMHO. You have a different account from every channel. You have people that aren't even in the area piecing together information that is confusing. Then you have the "former military analysts' making their comments, the broadcast hosts who just "speculate." And of course, the commentators and editoralists whose writings consist of opinion.
I think as far a casualties go. I trust the Iraq media to report numbers factually regarding their own people. And the U.S. media to report U.S. numbers factually. And the death toll is probobly the only truly confirmed information.
Cynical? I don't know. Maybe. Seems for every report there is a denial from another source.
I think as far a casualties go. I trust the Iraq media to report numbers factually regarding their own people. And the U.S. media to report U.S. numbers factually. And the death toll is probobly the only truly confirmed information.
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Oops,
Sorry, this thread wasn't directed towards you in particular but I just wanted to comment on the general state of media and how misleading they can be. I hope you will understand.
btw, I use the same method that you have described for the death toll. I just doubt the Iraqis body count since it's in their favour to increase the death toll. Equally, I doubt the coalition claims. I only accept the news claim if it's been accepted by the opposition or by a totally independent body.
see, this is what I call cynicism. US or British troops have found some gas masks left by the Iraqi soldiers (or civilian cum soldiers). Does it proof that US coalition is going to use Chemical Weapons on Iraqis. Maybe they don’t need to use chemical weapons when JDAM’s and MOAB’s are there but the argument doesn’t have any concret basis.
see, this is what I call cynicism. US or British troops have found some gas masks left by the Iraqi soldiers (or civilian cum soldiers). Does it proof that US coalition is going to use Chemical Weapons on Iraqis. Maybe they don't need to use chemical weapons when JDAM's and MOAB's are there but the argument doesn't have any concret basis.
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Khan_sahib,
I don't think finding suits or medicines proves anything. IMHO reporting such scares people more than anything else. Scares me. I don't like the way the media is doing its job at all. I don't like war period. I don't want to see Iraqi's being killed anymore than I want to see Americans being killed.
I don't understand why you think my previous comment (from another post) was cynical?
I've become very cynical recently, especially after hearing colin powell saying in an interview, the other night 'we have made great progress since the war began 5 days ago.....our forces have moved 100 miles into Baghdad.' Like what is he hooked on....CNN?!?
On a more serious note- there's Rumsfield who denied that any soldiers had gone missing, or that any planes had gone down- until Iraq TV showed otherwise. And then the TV station was bombed. Only one side doesnt want the people back home to see the real picture. (We all know who that is.) Thats the basis of cynicism IMO.
Whats strange is when the reporters show people injured in the hospital- it can't be independantly verified or confirmed, but then the alllied forces initial report that basra has fallen, is accepted like the Bible truth. Never mind the fact that they're still camped outside waiting for the civilians to uprise.
Maybe I was. Hadn’t thought of it that way. Truth is I don’t know what the truth is and thats the truth! Except that I do treat the media reports with skepticism.
Mostly just jabbering, asking unanswerable questions.
Maybe this is why one is cynical. Read the following and think why most of the world’s population does not believe the propaganda emenating from the Bush regime. Even better than Hitler’s propaganda machinery, according to the writer.
“Lies and other market forces
By Frank Scott
Online Journal Contributing Writer
“The size of the lie is a factor in causing it to be believed, for the masses are in their hearts more easily deceived than consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.”—Adolph Hitler
April 3, 2003—Even that foremost demon of the 20th century might not have imagined the U.S. regime’s capacity to both tell the biggest lies and deceive the public into believing them. Hitler might be dumbfounded at the extent of dishonesty the American people have been subjected to, though not at their “primitive simplicity” in swallowing the mental junk food they have been force-fed about Iraq.
Whether or not our court appointed government of fanatics have studied Hitler’s work, they’ve done a Hitlerian job of telling the most outrageous lies to a gullible nation. None so ridiculous as the creation of a monstrously powerful enemy, out of a crippled people and a nasty tyrant. While most of the world has seen through the distortions and propaganda, a majority of Americans have been frightened into believing stories that make the supernatural seem down to earth by comparison.
…
The morally degrading concept of war sanitizes mass murder, by implying it means a battle among equals, with one having threatened or attacked the other. But If a 500-pound ape who beats and rapes a 90-pound woman is having a “war” with her, then the USA is having a “war” with Iraq.
Invisible Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are breathlessly headlined by mass media, while more visibly dangerous economic and social problems are in small print or ignored. An intellectually challenged regime, a morally challenged media and a spinally challenged opposition are silent about our real problems. Such realities are hidden from national awareness with the cover of fantasy terror tales. This program of Hitler-style big lies masks a reality of truthful horrors, while also denying a reality of hope for humanity. USrael’s ruling Repub-Likud party, and its miserably moderate opposition, are leading the nation, and the world, towards a chaos that has nothing to do with Iraq.
…
It is amazing that the nation hasn’t already succumbed to mass hysteria, given the contradictory messages it has received. Iraq disregards the UN, we are told, and that is wrong, but we can disregard the UN, and that is right. Iraq has not honored UN resolutions, so it must be bombed; Israel has broken UN rules far more often, so it must receive more American tax dollars. Praise the lord, and pass the Prozac.
…
An America which was getting sympathy from much of the world after 9/11—at least, the official world—has transformed that support into deep rooted antagonism. As we further brutalize the suffering people of Iraq, and Palestine, the next bloody act of terror in the USA, whenever it happens, may be welcomed by the rest of the world. We owe this turnabout to a despicable leadership which shames us with its dishonesty, but our complicity makes it worse.
…” http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/040303Scott/040303scott.html
I don’t buy the Israel forcing American to war Iraq theory. And war with Iraq is an act of bloody terror? Sorry, your mistaken. 9/11 was an act of bloody terror without warning.
Why is it that the U.S. is blamed for the condition of the Palestinians? I am so sick of that argument. They need to make peace with each other, and if they can’t? perhaps with the help of some Arab states in the neighborhood for a change.
Anything the U.S. has tried has failed every time. I say it’s someone elses turn.
U.S. is no more to blame than Saddam for this war.
