catapult magazine

Is it just the media spin on the Iraq situation that is telling me that Iraqis are liking the American and British presence less and less? I don’t know what to think. Resistance seems to be stiffening and American soldiers seem to feel threatened most of the time. Here’s an article that really gets at the two different stories being told in Iraq:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/international/worldspecial/27CIVI.html?hp

Why would the media want us to think that things are going badly over there? I would think that they would try to hide as much of that as possible. But maybe I’m wrong— maybe they are reflecting the decrease in support at home for the war.

Because the media is just a bunch of beatnick types who want to undermine our Christian president? Seriously though, it would be good to get some pollsters into Iraq to scientifically find out exactly how Iraqis feel. That way we would know for sure. Don’t you think, grant?

A poll funded by whom?

Whatever the results, you’ll have people on one side claiming bias based on who paid for the poll and what the results “supposedly” are. You’ll still be confused as to who’s right. Polls. Ha.

it might be good to clarify what ‘iraqis’ the media refers to often, and it seems that when the media refers to iraqi resistance it seems focused largely on the ‘sunni triangle’. i read an article in the chicago tribune a couple weeks ago that discussed the situation in other sections of iraq, particularly basra, where things are relatively calm and heading towards at least semi-normalcy. so maybe the limited scope of the media focus is tricking news watching and reading folk into believing that things are worse across the board than they are. just a theory, any ideas?

Along the same lines, I heard a report on NPR’s “The World” last night that explained why most of the complainers can be found in Baghdad. In the past, under Saddam, many of the amenities (electricity, food and water) in Iraq were provided for the people in Baghdad because that’s where Saddam and his government was. As the U.S. has been trying to restore electricity to the whole country, the Baghdaddians have been complaining. But the rest of Iraq is used to power-outages because they had less electricity under Saddam than they have now. Now that power in the country is just about back to the way it should be in Iraq, Baghdaddites have to realize they’re not the only Iraqis in Iraq.

And the media’s choices can’t be reduced to trying to avoid offending pro-military action Americans. The U.S. media is governed (like many Western businesses) by “free” market forces. Whatever keeps people watching is good for the news programs. So, showing the Ten Commandments coming down from an Alabama courthourse lobby makes good news, because it stirs up sentiment and makes for drama and is therefore newsworthy. If there’s any bias in the media (and there are many), it’s toward getting—and keeping—viewers. That’s why I think the tedious day-to-day reconstruction and improvements in Iraq are not described on television news. It’s too slow. Too undramatic. But the bombing of the U.N. Headquarters in Iraq, the killing of U.S. soldiers is immediate, shocking, and more photogenic.

Baghdad isn’t just some city in Iraq though. It contains a quarter of the country’s population. If Iraqi is like other places, the voices of people outside of the big urban centers tend to get lost. So the opinions of Baghdadis are crucial.

I’ve been getting the impression lately that the Shiites in Basra aren’t exactly pleased with the British presence either. Several relief organizations have pulled out of that city lately citing safety concerns. I’d say the Kurds are relatively happy, but the rest of the country is a different story.

How about making the next camping is not optional trip to Iraq? No need to pack sleeping pads, cause there’s all that soft sand. And we could see for ourselves what’s going on.

I realize you are being at least partly facetious, Dan, but your post got me thinking. First of all, although I think a great many Christians are members of Amnesty International and it may well be that we are quietly making an impact in that organization, our presence there and in the rest of the world affairs arena is pretty quiet. Christians ought to be the ones out in front, taking risks to expose injustice in the world. Are there Christian organizations that do this? In our wildest dreams do you think cino could help found such an organization? Maybe we should go to Iraq.

To get the answer to whether or not such an organization is needed, one would have to talk to Amnesty and other existing groups. In my experience, having duplicate groups doesn’t usually lead to improvements.

My facetiousness has more to do with wanting to know what the situation is like in Iraq. Are there more drive-by shootings in Iraq than in LA on a typical day? Would it be safe to go camping in Iraq? Is the Americanization of Iraq so far as disasterous as it seems? How are the millions of Iraqis doing who previously benefited from the Hussein regime? Curiosity, that’s all. And dissatisfaction with the coverage as usual.

Are you saying, dan, that the Iraqi people’s sense of being better off under Saddam’s regime is an important indicator of U.S. success at this point in Iraq?

By ‘the millions’ I meant those who benefitted from collaborating with the old regime or who enjoyed benefits of having a family member in a position of authority, etc. I wasn’t trying to make an anti-occupation statement with that particular phrase. I’m just curious if their relationships with their neighbors have changed, how many have their old government jobs back, how much they’re getting paid compared to the old days… Basically I want details. And all I get from media is generalities and the daily parade of death and distruction.