SPIEGEL ONLINE Clinging to Iraq "Civil War" Fantasy

(By Ray Drake)

Some myths die hard. Like the media hype that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. Parts of Iraq are undoubtedly wracked by violence. But most of the media let the civil war canard die slowly and softly in recent weeks, particularly after the recent decapitation of Al-Qaeda and the formation of a unity government in Iraq. Not SPIEGEL ONLINE. In an article entitled "Baghdad Bathes in Blood," the magazine gives readers a thorough roundup of recent violence in Iraq and concludes that it represents "daily life in a civil war." It is particularly interesting to note that SPIEGEL ONLINE ran remarkably few such "bloodbath" articles while Saddam Hussein was busily butchering hundreds-of-thousands of Iraqi civilians. Saddam's atrocities certainly weren't the daily bread-and-butter headlines that recent Iraqi deaths have become. Call it asymmetric journalism.

"Baghdad Bathes in Blood": Just the headline you need after a week of US success in Iraq. The use of a light-skinned, bloodied little girl in the photo is a particularly cynical means to manipulate the emotions of the reading audience.

The article also claims that Bush is (you guessed it) under increasing "pressure" to withdraw troops. This despite the fact that another article linked just beneath it which details the crushing defeat dealt to advocates of withdrawal by the US Congress. As far as we can tell by reading SPIEGEL ONLINE, President Bush has been under unbearable, massive and increasing pressure since at least 2001. It's amazing how he seems to recover time and again.

In all fairness the "bloodbath" article actually does give brief mention to US successes against Al-Qaeda, in a short final paragraph preceded by ten paragraphs of blood and gore. Just the sort of fair and balanced journalism the German media is so famous for...

Comments

[Foobarista]

I always love the word "pressure" used by the MSM. It is used whenever it wasts to show that the target has some element of opposition, but that the opposition is powerless to do anything substantial.

That sort of pressure won't get toothpaste out of a tube...

[Yeshooroon]

Hello, thought everyone here my be interested in a UK perspective from a former anti-war Viet Nam journalist.

Rumsfeld Vindicated: Headline, of all places on CNN net. Curious to see if they run with this on TV.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/22/tyrrell.rumsfeld/index.html

My jaw dropped. I may actually view their news programs again.

We're winning the War on Terror in Iraq. The fact CNN would run with this headline is a telling point in our most biased media to date.

[Yeshooroon]

We should send these headlines to Spiegel ;-)

[beimami]

Deutschland badet im Blut!!!

Thousands of men, women and children are slaughtered every year in automobile accidents on German roads -- as is the case on the roads of nearly every country in world. We don't see unrelentless hysterical articles about that. The level of violence in Iraq, while tragic, is sustainable from a societal point of view. Iraq could modernize and prosper despite the current rate of death due to terrorist actions -- just as most Western nations prosper despite the incredible number of people killed and maimed in auto accidents each year.

Of course, Spiegel does not really report on the situation in Iraq. It would be more accurate to say that the magazine prodigiously produces propaganda designed to incite ill feelings among Germans toward the U.S. and to provide moral support to the the terrorists in Iraq.

I am continually astounded by the depth of the dishonesty in the German media with regard to the U.S. It must certainly rival anything produced by the National Socialists.

[PacRimJim]

Read Van Gogh's letters to his brother, in which he begs for a little more money. Then talk how it taints art. In no other profession is one expected to work without recompense.

[Tom Penn]

The Iraqi "civil war" meme has to be one of the weakest and most vile of the current series of mainstream lies popular with the international left. Both the insurgency and the sectarian violence has been largely led and funded by foreign jihadis, and neither movement has ever had any popular support. The Iraqi people clearly and overwhelmingly want Democracy and Freedom. It's amazing that so much of the high profile international left seem intentionally blinded to this fact to the point of essentially supporting the enemies of the Iraqi people and further encouraging new jihadis by exaggerating the movements "success". It's disgusting.

[Tom Penn]

I should have said that the jihadis fueling the insurgency and sectarian violence has never had any popular support within Iraqi. They're evidently quite popular in much of Europe and the Arab world.

[Mike H.]

Tom Penn, they have worked themselves, along with the media in the US, into a corner. Now, if they support the elimination of the hirabah then they look as if they were supporting the US. This is why the NYT is publishing classified info and the European media touts the irreconcilable civil war in Iraq (that the US can't do anything about (They've failed)).

N.B. The term hirabah is being used in lieu of the term jihad. Hirabah loosly translates to murdering butchers whereas jihad translates as honorable muslims fighting for their religion. Defenselink