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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 4-Dec-06
A letter to CNN's "Reliable Sources"

Web Log - December, 2006

A letter to CNN's "Reliable Sources"

On Sunday's show, host Howard Kurtz requested e-mail comments on the "civil war" question.

The show is supposed to be a "critical look at the media."

Here's the e-mail message I sent:

From: John J. Xenakis 
To: Howard Kurtz 
Subject: The "civil war" question

Dear Mr. Kurtz,

I take strong exception to the conclusions reached by your Sunday discussion on the "civil war" question.

Your reporter listed "facts that cannot be denied" about the war in Iraq, but her selected "facts" were carefully chosen.

Let's look at some "facts that can't be denied" that she and you ignored:

(*) The Thanksgiving day attack on Sadr City with 5 car bombs has nothing to do with a civil war; it was a terrorist attack, conducted by suicide bombers who weren't even Iraqis. It's similar to the 9/11 attacks on our WTC, and that wasn't a civil war either.

Why didn't you ask about that "fact that can't be denied"?

(*) After the attack, al-Sadr gave a press conference in which he blamed al-Qaeda, not the Sunnis. If there's a civil war going on, why didn't he blame the Sunnis? Another fact that you ignore.

(*) A couple of days later, al-Sadr announced that for two months he's been working with Sunni leaders to create a "national front" government bloc with Sunnis, Shiites and Christians, to challenge the Maliki government politically.

If there were a real civil war going on, that kind activity would be impossible. You can't simultaneously be killing people and forming an alliance with them.

That's another "fact that can't be denied" that you ignored.

(*) You quoted Michael Ware as saying, "If this isn't a civil war, then I'd hate to see a real civil war." What, is this guy a moron? There's a civil war going on today in Darfur. Does this guy have any idea what's going on in the world?

Why haven't you used the REAL civil in Darfur to challenge your guests? Or how about the REAL civil war in Rwanda in 1994?

(*) NBC's "civil war" announcement was not just "grandstanding," as your guest cravenly described it. NBC's admitted intention was to create a "Walter Cronkite moment" by giving a political advantage to America's enemy, to cause support for the war to "erode," so that America will lose the war, as it lost the Vietnam war.

NBC didn't have to make a big announcement, but they did admittedly to harm America. Why didn't you ask the NBC representative why they want America to lose the war?

You don't think that's fair? Well why not, when all of your guests repeatedly question the motives of the Administration in the most offensive way possible? Why don't you ever question the motives of your guests?

(*) A related matter: On 11/26, Jordan's King Abdullah had to lecture George Stephanopoulos on the importance of the critical Israeli/Palestinian problem. Abdullah had to repeat it five times, and still Stephanopoulos didn't have a clue what he was saying. Later, Stephanopoulos smirked and joked about what Abdullah had said. To me, Stephanopoulos looked like an idiot, and I'm sure he did to King Abdullah as well.

Why don't you cover that debacle on your program?

These are all questions and "facts that can't be denied," but you and your guests are so steeped in ideology that you don't ask anything that's the slightest bit confrontational. You're not there to be critical of journalists; you're there to condone and excuse even the most opprobrious behavior of journalists.

You and your reporters are very quick to identify "facts" that support your ideology, and quick to ignore those that don't.

If you'd like more details on the above matters, I invite you to read my web site, where more details are given, and links are provided to the mainstream media news sources:

Al-Sadr and Sunni alliance: http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?d=ww2010.weblog&i=e061201#e061201

NBC Announcement: http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?d=ww2010.weblog&i=e061129#e061129

King Abdullah and Stephanopoulos: http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?d=ww2010.weblog&i=e061126#e061126

I took a lot of time to write this message, and it's a valid criticism of your program and of journalists in general. I would appreciate a response.

Sincerely,

John J. Xenakis

I requested a response, but I won't be holding my breath.

As a separate matter, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi says that Iraq is "worse than a civil war," in an interview that the BBC can't stop talking about.

So what does that mean? Is Iraq worse than the civil war going on in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and millions have been displaced, starved and raped?

Is it worse than the civil war in 1994 in Rwanda, where one ethnic group rose up and killed a million of their neighbors of another ethnic group?

Is it worse than the 1970s "killing fields" civil war in Cambodia, where the Communist Khmer Rouge forced millions of people out of the city into labor camps, where they were starved, tortured and killed?

Ironically, Annan did talk about the Darfur genocide in another part of the interview, conveniently neglecting to compare that civil war to the so-called "worse than civil war" in Iraq.

All these examples show how far-gone today's journalists and politicians are in the sewer of ideology. Nothing makes any difference except for politics. From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, this is lead-up to every major crisis war. When the major "clash of civilizations" world war begins, a lot of this idological nonsense will stop. (4-Dec-06) Permanent Link
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