Ace says (with reply from Dave):
"Sixteen people have died sinceBush declared an end to major offensive operations in IraqAl-Newsweek ran a thinly-sourced and incendiary charge against the American military."
Updates will follow, unfortunately.
Dave From Garfield Ridge Says We're Missing the Point: He has no doubt that Al-Newsweek deserves all the grief that's coming to it, but he cautions that the blame for violence must be placed squarely on those actually committing the violence.
Yes, yes, Dave - BUT, after the prison abuse scandal - the "true" harm, it was said, was that it "hurt our standing" with Arabs. That it sent an awful message, etc. Well, if EVER there was an awful message sent -it was that Americans were flushing the Koran - and there are dead bodies to show how incideary that message is to parts of the Arab World.
Of course, it is ridiculous. Christians (and Jews) are not known for going on murderous rampages upon being told some "disrespected" their testaments. Although, in Tennessee, the parents get pretty mad if you take a way a child's bible for the crime of reading it during recess. Still, it's more of the "send all the kids to school with their bible" type of rampage, versus the killing type.
The bigger point, to me, is that the American media's anti-Americanism has consequences. When Canadians and Frenchmen, and the entire world can read AMERICAN writers disparage just about every aspect of our society, it's really not a great shock to read how low we rank in many's esteem. But, free country and all - nothing we can do about the Maureen Dowd and Noam Chomsky's out there. But, HERE's an idea- if someone is going to report something that could, you know, really damage us, would it be too much to ask that perhaps you check your facts a few times? Maybe you could sit on stories supported only by anonymous sources?
I'm probably asking too much here.
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