When PBS (not Fox) airs material showing Iraqis welcoming U.S troops, pockets of fruitful collaboration, etc., is it outright lying or being hoodwinked, or is it some different version of reality?
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When was the last time you watched or listened to a report with the content you describe?
I think it's safe to say there hasn't been any such material presented for a long time. At least, not a lot of it. Western journalists report that travel across Iraq is too dangerous for all but a hardy few and those few who do travel from say, Baghdad's "Green Zone" to Najaf aren't braving the roads to capture a story about welcoming citizens and "fruitful collaboration".
Also, analysis of 'reconstruction' reveals massive corruption and ineptitude. So contractors and NGO workers probably aren't terribly popular either (surely, if they were, there'd be many more tales of their successes).
According to an AP story posted online today, violence has uprooted upwards of 100,000 Iraqi families -
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060430/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq>
This is an astounding figure.
No, I doubt there are many opportunities these days for filing "...material showing Iraqis welcoming U.S troops, pockets of fruitful collaboration, etc."
Ravi, once more:
Well how do we know it [US presence in Iraq] hasn't helped? Can we predict what Iraq would be if the US pulled out overnight as many U.S leftists desire?
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I suppose we can't.
But, as it happens, the wishes of "radical leftists" notwithstanding, the US will be staying in Iraq for a long time. So, we'll all have a chance to witness the fruits of Washington's prolonged presence in Iraqi affairs.
And finally, Ravi:
I think a bit more U.N control [in Darfur], continued participation by NGOs, a little less mailing list activity and a little more activism on our parts, can make a difference. Will we do it? Perhaps not... but that is all I am discussing here...
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All of which sounds good.
What form should activism take? Who are we trying to influence? Ordinary citizens, Washington? The UN?
The "Save Darfur" website puts it this way:
Dear President Bush,
During your first year in the White House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan genocide, "Not on my watch."
I urge you to live up to those words by using the power of your office to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the civilians of Darfur.
[...]
Another activist website, "Darfur: A Genocide We can Stop" phrases their petition like so:
Dear President Bush:
I urge you with all of my heart and soul to show the moral leadership and courage necessary to end the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
I thank you for your leadership in passing the recent United Nations Security Council Resolutions that elevate pressure on the Sudanese Government through sanctions and the threat of prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
But much more needs to be done immediately. I implore you to take whatever steps necessary to:
* Provide maximum financial and logistical support to the African Union forces and pressure African nations to commit troops to this force;
* Expand economic sanctions to the Sudanese government, including a ban on oil exports until the crisis is solved;
* Increase funding for humanitarian relief efforts in the area; and
* Partner with France to enforce the flight restrictions approved by the recent UNSC Resolution.
This genocide was neither random nor inevitable - it was the deliberate, systematic plan of a regime that intends to "change the demography of Darfur." Every week that we let it continue, we become accomplices to genocide by isolation, starvation, and disease. If the United States fails to meet the moral urgency of this crisis, a part of our national soul will die and our claims to stand against tyranny will ring hollow.
[...]
<http://www.darfurgenocide.org/>
These humanitarian appeals are built upon a foundation of force, upon appeals to the Bush administration to apply direct force or support - financially and logistically as darfurgenocide.org phrases it - the African Union in suppressing violence.
What I am telling you is this: if these appeals fall on receptive ears (and there's evidence they are) the US will indeed intervene but the outcome may not be what you hope - even though your hope is already tempered by a knowledge of American tendencies and limitations.
This has little or nothing to do with being a "liberal" or a "radical leftist" and everything to do with knowing the tiger by its claws.
.d.
--------- "For ten years Caesar ruled with an iron fist. Then with a wooden leg; and finally with a piece of string."