March 6, 2005

The Truth about The Terrorists

Here's a report on our friends, the Saudis, and the role they're playing in the War on Terror in Iraq. Lance Frizzell, who is actually in Iraq, comments:

Mainstream media's greatest failure in Iraq is the refusal to acknowledge that the foreign terrorists we are fighting are foreign terrorists - without the "scare quotes." It's common knowledge and now there is empirical evidence to prove it.

I do not expect the reporting to change because that would mean confirming what the administration has said all along. Plus, foreign terrorists means no "homegrown insurgency" which means the tired Vietnam template gets blown to pieces and then - well, I'm not sure reporters would have a clue as to what they should write or say about the war. The majority would rather stand mute than report events that show President Bush in a positive light.

Of course, there actually is a "homegrown insurgency" in Iraq. The New York Post has an AP report with details.

The anger was underlined this week in Hillah, a predominantly Shiite city south of Baghdad where a suicide car bombing killed 125 people Monday. It touched a nerve in Hillah. More than 2,000 people chanting, "No to terrorism!" demonstrated Tuesday outside the clinic where the bomber wiped our a crowd of Iraqi police recruits and civilians.

Yesterday, hostility to the insurgency boiled over into bloodshed in Wihda, 25 miles south of Baghdad. Townsmen attacked militants thought to be planning a raid on the town and killed seven of them, police Capt. Hamadi al-Zubeidy reported. Anger against insurgents is being fed, in part, by a government television campaign. Last week, U.S.-financed Al-Iraqiya TV aired reports showing terrorists calmly talking about how they had beheaded dozens of people, kidnapped others for ransom, and raped women and girls before killing them.