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Iraq New Plan And Forecast of Doom: For Our Survival Don't Enter The Spin Zone

By: Edwin A. Sumcad

[ Posted On: 2007-01-18 ]

To survive this war on terror, we shouldn't enter the Media spin zone and leave our fate to the sport of the wind.

Right after President George W. Bush explained clearly to the American public how the new plan to send more troops to Iraq would work to win the war in Iraq, The New York Times and Washington Post, [1] radical prototype of the country's unbridled liberalism ganged up on Bush and forecast doom. Their spin was that the plan would fail because we were already doomed from the very beginning of the war, a kind of war that according to them, the American people neither needed nor wanted in the first place.

This is where they are terribly wrong. I will expound on this, but first let's squint at how the spin works for those who are neither acquainted with nor privy to the world of journalism.

The New York Times capped it up: "There is nothing ahead but even greater disaster." [Editorial, January 11, 2007.] It implies that with Bush's new Iraq strategy, our chance for victory is not just nil but zero, and our war effort in Iraq is doomed to failure.

Those doomsayers do not want to give the new attempt to solve the problem in Iraq a chance to workout and succeed.

Actually, the likes of The New York Times ensure that we fail in Iraq. FoxNews' O'Reilly Factor declared its findings that these left-leaning news organizations have "vested interest" for our failure in Iraq.

FoxNews' research and reports on these findings appear to be powerfully convincing and difficult to challenge. [Refer to Note (1)] Culture warriors in FoxNews can pluck any masquerading enemy in the crowd like they do a bad feather of the bird of their own when they see one.

If the claim of "vested interest" is true, I will hasten to add that we have to qualify this noxious media contamination that is toxic to our free society -- that only anti-Bush biased and government-averse liberal critics embedded in the Media have such ethically unacceptable "vested interest."

As a member of the Media myself, my reason for this hastened qualification or limitation is that there are also those that exist out of the bad and the ugly, the opposite of the worst of The New York Times and MSNBC [this news network is described as "extremely negative"], like the ABC with its "Good Morning America", and The Dallas Morning News that came out with editorials favorable to giving the Iraq problem-solving attempt of President Bush a fair shot.

The Dallas paper published an editorial eye-opener opposite to that of The New York Times: "No patriot can hope for the President to fail." [Editorial, The Dallas Morning News, January 11, 2007. [Refer to Note (1)]

Clearly deciphering this Dallas editorial lampoon against its own negative peers for the plain understanding of the confused American public, the hammering doubting and daunting off-putting media syndicate that The New York Times represents cannot claim to be loyal to the American cause in Iraq when they are in fact rooting for the downfall of this nation's now more than four years struggle in Iraq. Going this far, they want to stop us from snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. In doing so, they may be invoking the right to free speech and that is fine, but their initiative-killing intervention does not only make them irrelevant to the need of the time but also turns them into treacherous accomplices of the enemy which is more serious than just being disloyal to the country.

Viewing this in literature's glass darkly, while the pessimistic newspapers were wallowing in gloom which in Shakespeare's design of treachery in Macbeth are like Ireland's Leprechauns from the green-lighted corner of Hades that sprinkle dust of gold over our heads for bad luck, these apposite sunshine news links that the likes of the Dallas newspaper represent were exuding illuminating optimism, as well as exhibiting an abundance of self-building confidence and hope that with our fingers crossed and Diwali, the Hindu goddess of luck and good fortune smiling on us, [2] we might yet pull this up in Iraq and succeed where we first failed. All what we need is to give it a chance.

And what are the opposing news networks offering to the American public in lieu of the plan? Zero! They offer nothing except the appearances of loudmouths on national television screens that lecture the tired viewing public with their incoherent rhetoric as usual.

The overriding philosophy behind this is that the black knights of doom may continue to try to dampen us until they achieve what they want - our resignation and eventual defeat in Iraq -- but they cannot kill this building enthusiasm to succeed among hopeful Americans that like Bush, this nation's leader who is not giving up hope, kept on trying in order to succeed rather than fail. In the history of overwhelming challenges that we have to face, this kind of determination has given us many laurels in many wars we fought that changed the world … it is that undaunted spirit to win which, typically American, is good for the bone marrow of America that at the end needs to forever stand strong, unafraid and united …!

Right now it is for us to see and understand for our own survival why those negative forces are sponsoring our doom. They argue that we should reject the troop surge plan and leave Iraq. Once we leave Iraq, we are doomed. That's how plain and simple they lead us to doomsday.

Again, why are we doomed if we depart from Iraq and let terror win in the Middle East, has been explained in a truckload of documents that like a torrential rain had poured into public awareness from the very day the invasion of Iraq began. Al Qaeda terrorists and insurgents from Syria and Iran that are now fighting for the capture of Baghdad will make Iraq their base for expanding their Islamic empire. The truth of this danger is less recognized because it does not lie in the fagged out rhetoric of those who sponsor our defeat in Iraq but in the archive of Congress.

In the vortex of media blitz - also known as "the spin" - the sponsors of our defeat in Iraq use humans as tools to achieve their purpose most effectively. At the same time that the announced troop surge strategy was attacked by the radical news networks, the accompanying banner story was Cindy Sheehan's arrival in Cuba on January 6, 2007 where she was to stage a pro-terrorist rally.[3] She demanded the release of some 400 terrorists inmates and the closure of the U.S. military prison at the remote site of Guantanamo. The activist mom is obsessed in her belief that their confinement was in violation of the terrorists' civil rights, and the terrorists' continued confinement in the prison camp was a violation of human rights.

She was staging this rally in Cuba where Dictator Fidel Castro's prisons are bursting to the seam with political prisoners. Their sub-human condition in jail and their inhuman treatment by prison guards are beyond description. The Red Cross has no access to Castro's secretly guarded prison cells.

In Cuba, right before Sheehan's eyes, are violations of human rights institutiionalized under an oppressive dictatorial regime that the international community abhor. Did she see it or did she even notice it while in Cuba? Nada. She didn't even hear people in the free world talked about it.

If violation of human rights - cruel treatment and appalling subhuman condition in jail - is compared between that of Castro's political prisoners and that of the terrorists in the Gitmo prison, it was reported that the later lives in heaven on earth, to borrow a metaphor. And yet, Sheehan did not see this violation of human rights in the case of Castro's political prisoners. Nor her media supporters that sponsor our defeat in Iraq, ever mention about it when they projected Sheehan's presence in Cuba into the center stage of world attention.

It is clearly within the strong support of reason to conclude that Sheehan was not in Cuba to demand the closure of the Guantanamo jail because of violation of human rights. Sheehan is a grieving mother of her son Casey, the 24-year old soldier that terrorists killed in combat in Iraq. But in the mind of this mourning mother, the reality that seeped in was that her son was killed by President Bush because Bush sent him to Iraq to die in the hands of terrorists. The swelling majority of the American public considers this infantile rhetoric of a juvenile delinquent mind an insult to the intelligence of the American public, but this is the only coherent explanation that could be deduced as to why she wanted imprisoned terrorists in Guantanamo released considering that to her it was Bush and not the terrorists who killed his son in Iraq.

On top of it, Sheehan wanted all the troops in Iraq flown home because she cares about them and she loves America more than anyone else, her handful of supporters claim.

This time Sheehan's anti-Bush pitch in Cuba is that the Bush administration is the "enemies of humanity." [sic] [Refer to (3)]

This scripted rhetoric of course sounds familiar. But I am not inclined to discus here reports that Sheehan's cause has been bought by those who desperately want Bush to fail in Iraq. In her anti-American trip to Cuba, Sheehan like Bush has already been called terrible names by the angry public that condemned her for what she was doing. [4] Besides, she can be excused for being so illogical in her protest. A grieving mother need not be coherent.

The incoherence in this very charming oratory that attempts to disarm the skeptics in Sheehan's case is that, the likes of Sheehan - not just Sheehan but others like Sheehan which include the liberal media -- who want America's defeat by pulling our troops from Iraq, love the same America that they want to defeat in the war in Iraq!

It suggests to me that the confused public may fall back to the counsel of the best ever written literature - the Holy Bible. Judas was said to have loved Jesus Christ more than any of the disciples could have ever loved. But for thirty pieces of silver which were enough to betray Christ, Judas surrendered his divine love and reason to absurdity and vanity and left his fate to the wind before he hanged himself at the nearby tree.

We may take this biblical light about Judas in good stead, especially for those who grope their way in the dark, in addition to what we know about selling loyalty to country down the river to benefit the weak floundering self. We are reminded of Thomas Jefferson's wisdom years back when he put this country on guard against betrayal.

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. Thomas Jefferson.

It is terribly wrong to say that this country neither need nor want this war in Iraq. This is culpable dishonesty in the highest degree. Only those who became the sport of every wind because they bartered not only their reason but also reality, to an ounce of gold, either preached this or preached by this gospel down the road to perdition. You can go to Cuba like Cindy Sheehan and do your worst there and in comparison make Castro appear kinder than an angel, not just as a hater of America but an enemy of this country, but it won't make any difference. When you scan the Web, outraged Americans, angered by your betrayal just put a tag on you as a two-legged snake that bites the country that gave you your very precious personal freedom to protest.

Following the 9/11 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks, not only that we wanted but for survival needed very badly to respond to terror immediately before we sustain the next paralyzing attacks. We knew that Afghanistan and Iraq provided training and sanctuaries to terrorists and we decided through Congress, to strike at those two terror countries. Only skunk pig heads who are gluttons to Al Qaeda punishment would deny that we knew what the roles of those enemy countries played in the 9/11 attacks, and in denying, wait for the next attack.

It was Bush who proposed and it was Congress that disposed this country's final decision to invade Iraq. Those who flagged their ignorance in public that this Iraq war is Bush's war so that they could dump the garbage on him need to go to the confessional box and seek absolution..

The congressional decision for the invasion of Iraq was guided by the will of the majority of the American people that supported the recommendation of President Bush as Commander-In-Chief, i.e., that we need to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and bring Saddam Hussein, the Taliban government and their minions to justice, and most of all deprive Osama bin Laden's and Al Qaeda's international terrorists safe havens in those rogue countries. National polls recorded this will of the people to invade Iraq for posterity so that those who bargained their reason to gold may not in the future, bastardize, which as predicted, they are now doing.

For example, on March 24, 2003, just when the invasion was being evaluated in a congressional debate, USA Today Gallup Poll recorded the urgent need of this country to invade those two terror countries. [5] In this nationwide survey, more than 75% of Americans surveyed signified that the United States did not make a mistake in sending our troops to Iraq. Only 23% believed that it was a mistake.

On January 5-7, 2007, 57% believed it was a mistake against 41% who still voted that it was not a mistake. The difficulties that we encountered in Iraq, eroded the President's approval rating, and Bush-bashing strongly influenced the gullible to change these historic percentage figures.

This manifested on January 10, 2007. About 70% in the USA Today Gallup Poll opposed the sending of additional troops to Iraq versus 26% who favored.

But here is the fly in the ointment: More than half of those 70% who disapproved never watched President Bush delivered his speech on January 10, 2007 nor listened to that speech… 57% were neither listening nor watching President Bush addressed the nation of this new military strategy in Iraq.

This proves that the high percentage of those opposing the sending of additional troops to Iraq has nothing to do with the urgent necessity and the reason propounded as to why we needed additional troops in Iraq.

It was just a Bush whiplash.

On the other hand, FoxNews' O'Reilly.com Poll conducted on the same day, January 10, 2007, showed the opposite result -- 70% said yes to the question if Americans favor the sending of additional troops to Iraq. Only 30% disagreed. [Refer to (Note 1)] It is the reverse of the other polls

These divergent results are from media conducted surveys. FoxNews represents the Conservatives as opposed to that of the Liberals.

Notice exactly how the Media spins. Observe the efficacy of this perfect example of how the spin molds public opinion. Those who surrendered reason to absurdity is most vulnerable to walk all of us down the road to perdition.

We may allow those spins to influence our decisions on critical issues, but we must rely on reason to arrive at a better judgment for survival. Abandoning Iraq by sending our troops home instead of increasing them to win the war in Iraq is clearly not a good judgment for our survival. This is the result when people enter the spin zone without the necessary knowledgeable safeguards such as crucial information, experience, education and literacy.

For, entering the spin zone and leaving our fate to the sport of the wind as Jefferson warned, may prove fatal to our survival. #

Notes [1] to [5] are available for reference but not printed for space.
© Copyright Edwin A. Sumcad. Access January 17, 2007.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Edwin A. Sumcad is a veteran diplomat-journalist and for more than 45 years a recipient of numerous excellence awards in journalism. His editorial insights appear in other publications and published in several websites. A brief comment may be e-mailed to ed.superx722[at]yahoo.com.sg. [Please replace [at] with @]

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