Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Demonstration disparity
True, [Abu Masab al-Zarqawi] did manage to kill a couple of dozen Muslims. But what's the strategic value of that? Presumably, it's an old-fashioned mob heavy's way of keeping the locals in line. And that worked out well, didn't it? Hundreds of thousands of Zarqawi's fellow Jordanians fill the streets to demand his death.
Did they show that on the BBC? Or are demonstrations only news when they're anti-Bush and anti-Blair? And look at it this way: if the "occupation" is so unpopular in Iraq, where are the mass demonstrations against that? I'm not talking 200,000, or even 100 or 50,000. But, if there were just 1,500 folks shouting "Great Satan, go home!" in Baghdad or Mosul, it would be large enough for the media to do that little trick where they film the demo close up so it looks like the place is packed. Yet no such demonstrations take place.
Nobody likes to be occupied. It is a shame that the optimists in the Bush administration assumed that Iraq would be an exception. Steyn, however, puts it in helpful perspective -- the dynamic in the Middle East does appear to be changing against al Qaeda and the other fascists. The press -- especially the foreign press -- is deeply reluctant to recognize this change because of the implication that it might -- Allah forfend -- be the result of American foreign policy under the hated Bush administration. But the world is changing whether the BBC admits it or not.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Nov 23, 06:09:00 AM:
Did they show that on the BBC?
I don't get the BBC, but they did report it on the news site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4427518.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4424656.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4425578.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4426458.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4428204.stm
There are also links to video of the protests available from the stories above. So I think they probably did show the protests. Certainly they don't seem to be hiding them.
By , at
Thu Nov 24, 05:29:00 PM:
They would not show this becuase it shows these persons demanding the death of a terrorist becuase he is responible for the death of many arabs through bombing
