Israeli planes dropping bombs on civilians always seems to be big news

[NNN0LHI]

As it should be. All the 24 hours news channels would have reported on it in depth. We would have seen interviews from both sides condemning one another and everything. But when our planes do the same thing in Iraq there is not even a mention of it on our cable news channels. Why is that?

Don



http://www.teluguportal.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9745

US planes bombed Baghdad civilian houses: Shia group

Baghdad, Aug 7 (DPA) US jet fighters bombed civilian targets in an eastern Baghdad suburb, claimed a leading Shia official Monday.

According to Fattah al-Sheikh, an official in the Shia Sadr group, civilian areas of the Sadr suburb were targeted by US planes Sunday night.

He said a two-hour operation by joint US and Iraqi forces left a number of civilians, mostly women and children, killed or injured.

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=4818

Iraqi government television says U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area.

Fighting erupted early today in a Shi'ite militia stronghold of Baghdad.

Sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Al-Sadr City neighborhood from about 1 a.m. local time.

Iraqi government television says U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area.

The U.S. military said the fighting started when U.S. and Iraqi forces raided the area to capture extremists suspected of operating torture chambers.

[jpkenny]

1. Sad but true.

We and Israel have become the evil we say we hate.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. Have become?

I'm sorry, but we've been there for some time now.

[cali]

4. You didn't answer the question

which as I understand it is why do we express so much outrage about Israeli actions, and so little about U.S actions that are similar?

[azurnoir]

9. Seriously

Because we've been "expressing outrage" about Iraq for 3+ years, now one has to wonder if they're two fronts of the same war.

[SweetLeftFoot]

12. Here in Yoorp

Because we've been "expressing outrage" about Iraq for 3+ years, now one has to wonder if they're two fronts of the same war.

Here in Yoorp, everyone thinks they are.

USrael ... for better or worse.

[azurnoir]

15. Sounds like marriage

but if Israel is smart she'll get a pre-nup, think the grooms been messin' around with that Saudi whoever.

[Lerkfish]

10. well, I have expressed outrage all along against US actions

in fact, it gave me outrage fatigue. I object MORE to US actions in Iraq, AND that the US is behind this latest Israel push to draw in syria or Iran

its not a mutually exclusive outrage, they are different head son the same hydra.

[RaleighNCDUer]

21. When the US does it, it is not to be mentioned. There is a blatant

'unfairness' which grates on the warrior code for using unstoppable weapons against defenseless targets. We have to keep the moral high ground; therefore, we don't talk about it.

OTOH, accusations of the same against Israel opens the accuser to charges of antisemitism; they have a right to defend themselves, they face a vastly superior (numerically) foe, yadda-yadda. It's like a back-fire, set to stop the real fire.

IOW, the media plays up the outrage against Israel in order to stir up the anti-antisemitism voice, twisting what is normally a decent impulse in the American people. The same media plays down the outrage against the US because there is no comparable anti-antiUS voice, and there really is no defense for such actions.

In all the talk about 'asymmetrical warfare' it is important to note that the US chooses to fight asymmetrically -- use overwhelming force, including Guernica style air attacks against people who have no defense against them, despite the inevitable civilian casualties that will result. The forces they are facing fight asymmetrically because that's all they have - the IED, the sniper, the shoot-and-run mortar and missile attacks are all they have, yet they are castigated for employing the only tactics available against a militarily superior force. There are a lot of people who think of war as a grand adventure, a test of manhood, a struggle between good and evil; our culture, in theory, supports the underdog and believes in fair play. If people were to really understand the 'unfairness' in how we use our military they would recoil -- so we don't tell them. We have to remain being the good guys, no matter how many Fallujahs and Hadithas there may be.

[NNN0LHI]

22. You and Marie26 down below have the answer n/t

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. Israel = New News. Iraq = Old News.

This is one area of media inconsistency I actually understand, if not condone. People aren't as interested in Iraq any more. Being that the media is a business, they play to the interest in a story, not so much the importance of it. This is why public media is so important.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Yes, but also they have to depend on the US gov't....

... for 'consideration' in a plethora of ways ( starting with licensure).

There is no similar dependence on Israel.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

11. Very true. (nt)

[NNN0LHI]

17. I don't remember our media EVER covering the number of Iraq civillians...

...our government has killed in any depth. You think maybe I just missed it? It is damn hard missing the reporting of tens of thousands of dead Iraqis if those stories had ever actually been covered.

Don

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

18. You're half right.

It's never been covered to this extent, however, I have seen the numbers in reports, buried deep into articles.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. That's why they won't let us see pictures of it from Iraq

Without pictures, it didn't happen and no one will care.

Start showing pictures of dead babies, demolished buildings and bomb craters and the M$M is more then happy to broadcast them.

[malaise]

6. See no evil

when it's your evil. That has been MSMachine's modus operandi from day one.

[Double T]

7. One is as bad as the other............

It is ALL evil regimes fighting each other while the innocent civilians are paying the ultimate price with their lives. The reporting on both wars by the MSM is heavily slanted propaganda, there are NO GOOD GUYS on any side.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Because we would have to admit that our killers are doing the same.

A lot of people can think of Israeli pilots as mindless monsters doing the evil work of their masters. But, it's a difficult leap to admit that "Our Troops" are doing the same.

When our troops slaughter civilians, it's "understandable", "they are under stress", "they have to follow orders". When "our" pilots do the same they are "protecting civilians", they are "just doing their job", "they have no choice", "they're just kids in terrible circumstances", etc, etc, ad nauseum.

If we condemn the Israelis for dismembering Lebanese civilians with bombs, then we would be forced to face the reality that we are doing the same to Iraqis civilians.

We could no longer use the "few bad apples" defense.

[jdlh8894]

14. #1 Rule for MSM

"If it Bleeds, it leads"

[NNN0LHI]

16. ...a number of civilians, mostly women and children, killed or injured...

There is that "its just a number" shit again. What is the goddamn number? Two? Twenty? A hundred?

I guess we will never know?

Don

[The Stranger]

19. Interviews from BOTH sides? What channel was that on?

[Marie26]

20. It's odd to me.

I know what Israel is doing is horrible, but it seems like people become very self-righteously angry at the Lebanon conflict w/o recognizing that we are doing all of this, and worse, in Iraq. The civilian casualties in Lebanon are bad, but don't even begin to approach the number of civilians that are dying daily in Iraq. The latest estimate is that 14,000 civilians have died in Iraq over the last 6 months. 100 civilians are dying every day. That's staggering.

In Iraq, many civilians also died as a result of the US's initial invasion. Israel has been criticized for indiscriminate bombing of civilians. W/the new "precision-guided" bombing, it seems like there shouldn't be so many casualties, & some people have speculated that it must mean that Israel is doing it deliberately. I don't believe that. During the 4 weeks of this conflict, 591 Lebanese civilians have died as a result of Israeli bombing. At the beginning of the Iraq War, the US also did "precision strikes" on Iraqi leadership positions during the "shock & awe" campaign. It turns out, none of those bombs hit the intended target. During the first 4 weeks of the Iraq War, over 6000 Iraqi civilians were killed. I think the lie here is that there is ever such a thing as a "precision strike." We were sold that BS by Rumsfeld because it eased Americans' conscience & made it much easier to go to war. They sold it as if we'd only be "liberating" normal Iraqis; we wouldn't be hurting them. It was a convenient lie.

But we won't see the children who died during the Iraq "shock & awe" campaign, & we don't see the results of those "precision strikes." The media never covered the toll on civilians during the Iraq War, because they were controlled by the Pentagon, and were also complicit in stoking Americans' enthusiasm for war. Wouldn't want any dead civilians giving Americans second thoughts. And we still won't see it. The news media has a nice shiny new war to concentrate on so they don't have to cover the spiraling violence in Iraq. And liberals have a new war to get outraged about w/o having to feel the same guilt & shame that we feel about Iraq. But when we see the horrors happening in Lebanon, IMO it's important to keep in mind that the same thing happened in Iraq - we just didn't see it. I think it's just easier for us as a country to avert our eyes whenever possible from the fiasco of Iraq. It's hard for us to face. We are Israel now; we just don't want to admit it.

[Sinti]

23. Why is that? We have a relatively controlled media

It maybe self-censoring rather than direct government censoring, but they can't report just any old thing they want to. Much of your media is owned by the same companies that make the bombs that are being dropped on those civilians... it's bad PR. Then of course there's Fox, 'nuff said.