See No Evil...
Juan Cole makes a great point in his post today, about how the American media just loves to report on natural disasters — we can't seem to get enough of the shocking photos and grisly details. But...
But American television is little interested in the massive disaster blithely visited upon Iraq by Washington.
Some of the results of the 2003 invasion you won't hear much about in the MSM:
At least a million Iraqis dead.
310,000 of those killed directly by US troops or in US air raids.
Three million Iraqis wounded.
Five million Iraqi refugees — the equivalent of "55 million displaced Americans."
We did these things. But we'd rather not think about them:
...the apocalypse that the United States has unleashed upon Iraq is among the greatest catastrophes to befall any country in the past 50 years. It is a much worse disaster over time than the Burmese cyclone or the Mississippi floods.
You won't see it on television very much these days.
Comments
Abi there are many things we have done to the world and ourselves that don't put us in a good light. Bring them up and we get accused of not loving America enough. As a result we don't learn from our own history. We're driving without a rearview mirror.
Posted by: Lev | June 22, 2008 05:02 PM
So many things we have done to ourselves and the world. Bring them up and we get accused of not loving America enough. We do not seem to have basic insight into our motivations. History can be a great teacher but we drive without a rearview mirror.
Posted by: Lev | June 22, 2008 05:05 PM
Just a quick look and US media also seems to be ignoring the tragedy in Zimbabwe.
I guess supporting democratic principles is a selective process.
Posted by: Dennis Cartledge | June 22, 2008 06:22 PM
Lev, that's a good way to put it - no rearview mirror, at least about some things. And no, we don't learn from our past, and that's why we keep making the same damn mistakes.
Cart, I was really disappointed today to see that the MDC is dropping their opposition to Mubabe. And I had the same raction - Bush's support for democracy seems to be limited to countries with huge oil fields. Otherwise we don't want to know anything about it.
Posted by: abi | June 22, 2008 08:36 PM