Comments on: Al-Iraqya, Propaganda and Televison http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/ The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be. - Pete Seeger Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:20:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Saheli http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/#comment-739 Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:17:15 +0000 http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/#comment-739 Ack! I didn't mean to be anonymous. That was Saheli talking. What I meant by What's Done is Done is --- we've toppled their infrastructure. We have to finish fixing it before we can leave. And a lot of the innocents being killed <i>now</i> are being killed in the crossfire provided by people who are fighting us for no good reason at all. Ack! I didn’t mean to be anonymous. That was Saheli talking.

What I meant by What’s Done is Done is — we’ve toppled their infrastructure. We have to finish fixing it before we can leave. And a lot of the innocents being killed now are being killed in the crossfire provided by people who are fighting us for no good reason at all.

]]> by: michael http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/#comment-727 Fri, 08 Apr 2005 19:34:27 +0000 http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/#comment-727 Dear <s>Anonymous</s> Saheli, <s>I wish you would use a first name or a pseudonym to post without disclosing your true identity :-). </s> [editorial afternote: It was my own broken page that had disabled the name/email/URI fields --oops, fixed and edited] Thanks for your perspective, I have no doubt that there are many good eggs in the military who have their hearts in the right place. My brother's in the Navy. Certainly if I got drafted (hypothetically of course, there being no draft) I would want to do something like what she's doing, helping to rebuild. I did not mean to imply (by omission) that the totality of US action in Iraq as purely negative, but it's difficult for me to accept the "what's done is done" argument, since the war continues, and innocents are continuing to be killed with my tax-money for illegitimate political reasons. I respect and support the people enlisted, but cannot support violence. Thanks for sharing the story about your friend. I would be ideal if the military converted 90% of stationed personnel there to humanitarian work, before a smooth and rapid withdrawl. Dear Anonymous Saheli,

I wish you would use a first name or a pseudonym to post without disclosing your true identity :-) .

[editorial afternote: It was my own broken page that had disabled the name/email/URI fields –oops, fixed and edited]

Thanks for your perspective, I have no doubt that there are many good eggs in the military who have their hearts in the right place. My brother’s in the Navy.

Certainly if I got drafted (hypothetically of course, there being no draft) I would want to do something like what she’s doing, helping to rebuild. I did not mean to imply (by omission) that the totality of US action in Iraq as purely negative, but it’s difficult for me to accept the “what’s done is done” argument, since the war continues, and innocents are continuing to be killed with my tax-money for illegitimate political reasons.

I respect and support the people enlisted, but cannot support violence. Thanks for sharing the story about your friend. I would be ideal if the military converted 90% of stationed personnel there to humanitarian work, before a smooth and rapid withdrawl.

]]> by: Saheli http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/#comment-725 Thu, 07 Apr 2005 18:10:14 +0000 http://heliolith.com/archives/2005/04/07/the-media-war-on-the-middle-east/#comment-725 To add another perspective, I have a classmate from Columbia who was a Marine Reservist; she got redeployed a few months after graduation. A real good egg type, one of those women everyone respects and likes. She's in the pr section, whatever that's called. She recently sent out a message to the class list asking for help with an equipment list she was making; off of that her corps would help small Iraqi towns open their own local stations. She also wanted to know if anyone knew of nonprofits that would help or local news stations that might make donations of old equipment. They are trying hard, and not everything is for propaganda's sake. I wish she didn't have to be there; I wish all this effort had been directed at Afghanistan three years ago instead of Iraq; but what's done is done and the fact is they need local media in order to build functioning civil society, and <i>at this point</i> they need our help to do it. So-called pottery barn rule. Al-Iraquiya sounds like a very bad thing, but I do want to point out that there are some good things or at least necessary things being done. To add another perspective, I have a classmate from Columbia who was a Marine Reservist; she got redeployed a few months after graduation. A real good egg type, one of those women everyone respects and likes. She’s in the pr section, whatever that’s called. She recently sent out a message to the class list asking for help with an equipment list she was making; off of that her corps would help small Iraqi towns open their own local stations. She also wanted to know if anyone knew of nonprofits that would help or local news stations that might make donations of old equipment. They are trying hard, and not everything is for propaganda’s sake. I wish she didn’t have to be there; I wish all this effort had been directed at Afghanistan three years ago instead of Iraq; but what’s done is done and the fact is they need local media in order to build functioning civil society, and at this point they need our help to do it. So-called pottery barn rule. Al-Iraquiya sounds like a very bad thing, but I do want to point out that there are some good things or at least necessary things being done.

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