...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, April 21, 2003
      ( 12:52 PM )
 
Late Night with Jay... Garner

The corporate media is very hot on the topic of Jay Garner arriving in Iraq to take charge. Most bloggers have discussed this issue at length (and long before the news services decided to address it). I only have one basic thought on this subject.

What's the point?

From the looks of things, starting last Friday, the imams have things well under control already. Did BushCo seriously think that they were going to prance in there and set up some form of mini-U.S.? From the way they talk, it sounds like it. But already thousands of fundamentalists are forming coalitions and governing groups (not to mention neighborhood policing forces), both at the behest of clerics, and on their own. Already, thousands are demonstrating against the U.S. Not only are the fundamentalists organizing against the U.S. interim government, but the Kurds are as well. Did someone in BushCo forget to read their homework on Iran? I will not be surprised at all if there is an Islamic fundamentalist takeover and revolt. My question is, why couldn't BushCo see this coming, and why didn't they plan for it? Why didn't they plan for anything in a realistic way? Why are they in charge in the first place?...oh, I digress.

I heard on NPR's On the Media show last night, there was a story about the new tv "programming package" being set up by BushCo, and led by Norm Pattiz, chairman of Westwood One. Translated broadcasts of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather will be shown. Why in the hell would Iraqis want to watch news about us by us and completely ignorant of the rest of the world? This will be further fodder for them to believe that we're trying to take over, erase their culture and pound them out of existence. Oh, and CNN opted out of the package because they wanted to avoid "looking like they were working with the government." Uh, too late.

Them Iraqis are gonna LOVE us, whether they want to or not! So print that, Helen Thomas!

| -- permanent link