The Common Ills: White House negotiates to send troops back into Iraq

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

White House negotiates to send troops back into Iraq

Dar Addustour reports today on the New York Times noting that the US just sent a unit of Speical-Ops back into Iraq and how there are negotiations between the White House and Iraq to returns US troops to Iraq in larger number.

Dar Addustour is referring to Tim Arango's report from last week, "Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence."

It's really amazing that an Arabic outlet can report on an English language, US news outlet report but, for example, CBS Evening News can't tell their viewers (what is that now, three? are they up to four?) that not only has the White House sent a Special-Ops team in but they are negotiating to send more in. While Barack campaigns for re-election on the lie that he pulled all troops out of Iraq.

In the US 9-11 means September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. England has 7/7 for July 7, 2005 when they suffered a terrorist attack. ANI reports that some people are upset over a documentary airing on BBC, "The programme 7/7 Bombings: Conspiracy Road Trip to be aired on BBC3, and hosted by Irish comedian Andrew Maxwell, claims that the co-ordinated blasts were in fact part of a government plot to boost support for the Iraq War. The 7/7 attacks in 2005 had killed 52 people, when four suicide bombers, who were British Muslims, detonated their home made devices on the London Tubes and a bus during the morning rush-hour commute." It's always upsetting when some are bothered by questions. By questions. If you don't like the documentary, turn the channel. It's been over 7 years. The special is not attempting to mock any victim. It's attempting to find answers. If you think they're the wrong answers, find something else to watch.

Terrorism exploration is 'outrageous,' but terrorism entertainment is embraced -- that's the real outrage. July 15th, Ava and I took a look at a variety of media platforms and observed:

But reality will be lost by those who stream even a few moments of Prisoners of War.
That's because the series isn't entertainment, it's propaganda.
In the early sixties, when liberal artists felt shunned by the mainstream, they used films like Dr. Strangelove to convey messages. In this decade, it's conservatives who felt shunned and they've resorted to shows like 24 and Homeland. While the earlier group used humor to show what could go on, the newer group has only fear to offer.
So Homeland tells American audiences that the US Marine who is finally back home, he may actually be a sleeper for Muslim terrorists. The X-Files warned you to "Trust no one," but really meant, "Don't trust the government." Howard Gordon worked on The X-Files and 24 and copied (though he prefers "created") Homeland. And with each new series, Gordon gets closer to the ugliness inside him that he wants to pretend is inside the United States.
In Israel, Prisoners of War was an immediate hit and is now considered an Israeli-TV classic. That's not at all surprising for a country whose people are encouraged to hate and/or fear neighbors. Gordon apparently wants to do something similar within the US. It's not really working. Americans with Showtime have looked at Homeland and found it wanting.
21 million people legally have Showtime and yet the average Homeland episode couldn't even break 1.5 million in viewers -- despite repeat showings. And despite the usual idiots of the Water Cooler Set praising Claire Danes' bad performance which is all eye make up and grunts -- it's like sitting through The Mod Squad yet again. And that's good. It's good that the Howard Gordons haven't yet figured out how to sell hate and fear to a mass market.

But selling that crap gets a lot easier when the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences embraces and strokes its inner-Hitler. (I don't make Hitler comparisons as a general rule. The exception is to any organization I belong to. And what took place last month was outrageous.) Did that piece of crap -- including the lousy Claire Danes -- miss an Emmy in any category?

There's a false rumor that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is left. It's not. What is it? Stupid. Highly ignorant. Unable to process anything more complex than a bumper sticker. Which is why they gave one left joke or 'joke' after another during the ceremony while missing the fact that they were rewarding right-wing fear mongering.

Fortunately, the shame of the Emmys won't be swept aside.

The Independent of London notes today:

In an interview with the Radio Times, McCarthy said the scenes showing US marine Nicholas Brody being questioned by the CIA after his transfer from Iraq were "an unrealistic portrayal of somebody re-entering society".

Independent.ie adds:

McCarthy told Radio Times: “Watching someone being beaten to death, even in the fairly snippety bits I’ve seen - it is absolutely grotesque and makes your stomach churn.
“I do fear we’re not really appreciating the absolute horror of what someone’s going through there. Anybody who has been severely beaten wouldn’t see that as entertainment.”

Get it? It's an ugly show which normalizes violence. G.W. Schulz (Center for Investigative Reporting) explains today:

The poll results showed that an increasing number of Americans supported torturing prisoners, up 14 points to 41 percent since 2007. The wording of questions can deeply influence how people answer a poll, so Zegart used the same questions from research done on interrogation techniques in 2005, before Barack Obama was elected president.
“It turns out that Americans don’t just like the general idea of torture more now,” Zegart wrote for Foreign Policy on Sept. 25. “They like specific torture techniques more too.”

That should scare the hell out of any thinking lefty -- which means the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences won't give it a second thought.

Torture is being normalized. And when this trash gets handed awards -- be it 24 or Homeland -- it's not just being embraced by viewers, it's being embraced by the industry. That's outrageous.

And are we a little bit off track here this morning? Yeah.

Because for over a week now we've been writing about the New York Times reporting that the Special-Ops team going back into Iraq and about the negotiations between the White House and Nouri's government in Baghdad to send more US troops back into Iraq.

Those two developments? They're called news. So why won't NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, et all address it?

This morning, we bring in BBC television and American television in the hopes that it expands the usual audience enough to get the word out on actual news -- actual news the news industry refuses to report to the American people.

The following community sites -- plus Black Agenda Report, Susan's On the Edge, On The Wilder Side, Adam Kokesh, KPFK, FPIF, The Bat Segundo Show, World Can't Wait, The Diane Rehm Show and Antiwar.com -- updated last night and this morning: