Blurry

Greyhawk

A postscript to yesterday's story on the New York Time's fabrication of demands made on Americans by US troops. Times Watch responds to the same story, and notes the obvious holes in the cheese - how exactly would it benefit the GIs if Americans were to bow to their alleged demands?

What those would accomplish for the troops Shanker keeps silent about. Despite the assumption made in that paragraph, none of the military members Shanker quotes actually demand such World War II-era measures as gas rationing (a theme strengthened in the story with archived photos of old propaganda posters).

Good to see at least a few people noted that other crucial point too - the Times could offer no actual quotes supporting their claims. The Times is inventing a fictional version of the war in Iraq, fabricating the voices of US soldiers.

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Speaking of fictional accounts of the war in Iraq, looks like one's coming soon to a TV near you. The LA Times reports:

"Over There," Steven Bochco's new American-troops-in-Iraq series, uneasily walks a difficult line ? just like its characters.

Premiering tonight on FX, "Over There" is the network's second series, after "Rescue Me," to have sprung, in a general way, from the events of 9/11.

Set in contemporary Iraq among the members of a small, variously employed combat unit, and to a lesser extent among the people they left behind, it shares with the earlier, FDNY-set series elements of unusual stress and heavy gear. Co-created by "NYPD Blue" mastermind Steven Bochco (who was approached by FX to develop the series) with Chris Gerolmo, it's technically accomplished, convincingly played and reliably diverting, and it raises a lot of questions ? not so much as to what we're doing or not doing in Iraq, but about what it means to watch a television fiction set there.

Got that Hollywood does Iraq sick feeling in your stomach yet? How about this:

Bochco, for one, is not kidding himself about higher purpose: "Our agenda ... is simply, and fundamentally, to create a very compelling entertainment," he says in the video press kit FX sent out with the series' first three episodes. Gerolmo is more expansive: "War is a natural subject of television. It's got all the drama of 'Law & Order' and it's got all the action of '24' and, for better or worse, it's got all the gore of 'CSI.' Why not write about war? ... We can give you a powerful, visceral gut-wrenching experience that the news can't give you."

Gerolmo has a point about the growing failure of the news to communicate any sense of the reality of Iraq.

That can mean one of two things, of course. Lefties in America believe that the news doesn't tell how truly awful Iraq is, while troops in Iraq know that the media overemphasizes the bad news from there. Which view does this program present? The first clue that it might actually be a good show comes from the fact that the LA Times reviewer pans it outright:

"Over There" seems relatively well-intentioned and -researched, but it falls victim to movie convention and, worse, to a lack of curiosity about its own characters and setting... But for the most part it feels fuzzy, its lack of detail and complexity only somewhat disguised by a plurality of big events.

Given this thumbs-down review from the LA Times it sounds like this is definitely a show worth watching. Ironically this "fictional" version of the war in Iraq could easily succeed in telling the real story - in a way the New York Times refuses to.

Wonder if any of the story lines will sound familiar to MilBloggers and readers?

The reviewer also adds that the characters are stereotypes, the soldier's wives are too pretty, the soldiers are portrayed as heroes, and at the heart of all the problems he has with it, this: "There is no blurring of right side and wrong."

That, in the minds of journalists, is the potential cardinal sin of Iraq war reporting - if "there is no blurring of right side and wrong." Apparently that must be blurred - for the sake of what, we don't know. Credibility, perhaps?

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Odd - there's no blurring of right and wrong in this piece from the Miami Herald:

As Iraqi insurgents become more skilled at hiding deadly roadside bombs, the Pentagon is scrambling to find new ways to protect American troops.

Iraqi insurgents are "skilled" - and Americans are "scrambling". Any questions?

Here's another glowing review of the war on terror from the NY Times:

Despite months of assurances that their forces were on the wane, the guerrillas and terrorists battling the American-backed enterprise here appear to be growing more violent, more resilient and more sophisticated than ever.

<...>

And the insurgents are choosing their targets with greater precision, and executing and dramatizing their attacks with more sophistication than they have in the past.

Sophisticated... violent... precise... resilient...

The NY Times coverage of "insurgents" in Iraq sounds increasingly like a gaggle of star-struck junior high school girls describing the greasy haired kid with the souped-up moped they think is their dream date. Both types of authors are victims of the blurring of right and wrong.

There's always hope that the middle school girls might outgrow their obsession.

Here's an example from the linked story of exactly what turns the Time's boys on:

Last Sunday, in the Shiite town of Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, a suicide bomber dashed beneath a truck full of liquefied gas and blew himself up, igniting a giant fireball that killed more than 70 people and wounded at least 156.

Hey - if that's sophisticated by New York definition then I guess I'm proud to be from flyover country.

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Here's more precise, sophisticated terrorist behavior, described by MilBlogger Rusten Currie:

My roommate, LT Irish, has been nearly killed for a third time today. The Durkas are tossing TNT at us now. A stick bounced off of LT Irish?s HMMWV, he told me that the first thing he thought as it bounced less than a foot from him, the only thing between him and it was thick armoured glass. He said he wondered why they were tossing road flares at him in daylight. Using them for signaling in broad daylight didn?t make sense. Then he realized what it was.

Read the whole thing. The post is really about the blurring of right and wrong. The real blurring of right and wrong - not the sort the LA Times TV critics demand:

LT Irish, saw the man who tried to murder him fleeing into a vehicle, he ordered the gunner to fire at the man and the vehicle. The kid in the turret, not much older than 24 froze. Momentarily paralyzed with the horrific realization that he was about to murder another human being.

That sort of unsophisticated response rarely occurs in the enemy camp.

That sort of story could make good television. The sort that gives LA Times reporters fits.

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We pause for this brief, important message from Daniel Pipes:

What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not.

A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with success, the release of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany. Upon attacking the B'nai B'rith headquarters and two other Washington, D.C. buildings in 1977, a Hanafi Muslim group demanded the canceling of a feature movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (as reimbursement for a fine), the turning over of the five men who had massacred the Hanafi leader's family, plus the killer of Malcolm X.

<...>

Most anti-Western terrorist attacks these days are perpetrated without demands being enunciated. Bombs go off, planes get hijacked and crashed into buildings, hotels collapse. The dead are counted. Detectives trace back the perpetrators' identities. Shadowy websites make post-hoc unauthenticated claims.

But the reasons for the violence go unexplained. Analysts, including myself, are left speculating about motives.

<...>

In nearly all cases, the jihadi terrorists have a patently self-evident ambition: to establish a world dominated by Muslims, Islam, and Islamic law, the Shari'a. Or, again to cite the Daily Telegraph, their "real project is the extension of the Islamic territory across the globe, and the establishment of a worldwide ?caliphate' founded on Shari'a law."

<...>

What the terrorists want is abundantly clear. It requires monumental denial not to acknowledge it, but we Westerners have risen to the challenge.

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CENTCOM 's web site has a new feature - a newsletter compiling stories of the accomplishments of CENTCOM troops in their AOR in the war on terror. Don't expect this to be widely read by the teeny-boppers the New York Times calls reporters.

Because they're fair and balanced, CENTCOM now also offers a compilation of news releases from the terrorists too. Here's one of the latest:

"Statement issued by the Shari' ah Court

The court' s decision on the Algerian envoys

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Praise be to God, who says: "In the Law of Equality there is (saving of) Life to you, o ye men of understanding." [part of a Koranic verse]. May God ' s peace and blessings be upon he who obeyed the Sunnah and [the Holy] Book [Prophet Muhammad], upon his household and good companions, and also upon those who follow them charitably until doomsday.

Due to the apostasy of the contemporary despotic governments that gave their legislation and constitutions precedence over God ' s shari ' ah and injunctions, that ruled Muslims evoking instruments other than the Islamic shari ' ah, that did not make do with this, but also fought those who called for obeying the auspicious shari ' ah, killed honest mujahidin and God-fearing scholars, and supported Jews, Christians, and infidels in the course of their war against Islam and Muslims; the ambassadors of these governments and their representatives wherever they are have become legitimate targets for the mujahidin ' s swords. God says: "Then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them." [Part of a Koranic verse]

The prophet, may God ' s peace and blessings be upon him, says: "Kill whoever changes his religion." This hadith is related by Al-Bukhari.

Based on the above, the Shari ' ah Court of the Al-Qa ' ida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers has decided to carry out God ' s ruling on the diplomatic envoys of the apostate Algerian Government, who are Chief of Mission Ali Belaroussi and diplomatic attache Azzedine Belkadi by killing them.

Coincidentally, that kidnapping of the Algerian envoys was another example cited by the NY Times in supporting their "increasingly sophisticated insurgents" claim. As with their claims about what American troops are saying, it's revealing to contrast the terrorist press releases with the coverage they get in the American media.

Another example of terrorists in their own words:

The Secret Organization Group.

The Al Qaeda organization in Europe .

In the name of Allah most merciful, most gracious, and may God bless the Prophet Mohammed. The Islamic world should celebrate it is time to revenge the British Zionist Christian government. This is in response to the British participation in the slaughter being carried out in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic holy warriors carried out a blessed attack in London and now Britain is burning from fear, terror and anxiety through its northern, southern, eastern and western corners. We warned the British government and the British people repeatedly - time and time again - and here we are. We have kept our promise and carried out this blessed military attack. This comes after great efforts and the long preparations by the heroic holy warriors to guarantee the success of the attack. We are in the process of continuing our warnings to the Danish and Italian governments and all the Crusader governments that they will receive the same punishment if they do not withdrawal their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Arthur Chrenkoff once again reports an under-reported story. This time it's not good news:

Ateeque Sharifi, 24, who was living in Hounslow, West London, fled Kabul three years ago to seek refuge in Britain. He was the only male member of his family to escape death at the hands of the Taleban...

Eight months after arriving in Britain, Mr Sharifi enrolled in West Thames College and began mastering the English language, working in his spare time at a take-away pizza restaurant. Most of his wages were sent to Afghanistan to his younger sister who still lives there.

...He died in the explosion set off by bomber Jermaine Lindsay as their Piccadilly Line train approached the station at Russell Square.

Skilled... sophisticated... violent... precise... resilient...

"There is no blurring of right side and wrong."

Indeed.

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Update: Two Algerian diplomats who were kidnapped in broad daylight less than a week ago have been killed after receiving a death sentence from what was described as a religious court, a group led by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in an Internet posting on Wednesday.

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Hat tip to Mrs G for several stories above pulled from the Dawn Patrol.