Sunday, April 28, 2013

Hejira

Through Saturday, Iraq Body Count counts 501 violent deaths so far this month.  National Iraqi News Agency reports 1 person was shot dead in Falluja and another left injured, 1 person and 1 soldier were shot dead in Mosul, and 1 attorney was shot dead in Baquba.  All Iraq News adds a Tikrit bombing claimed the lives of 2 soldiers and left two more injured.


In other violence, Nouri is bullying the press yet again.  All Iraq News reports satellite channels are being suspended: Al Jazeera, al-Sharqiya, al-Sharqiya News, Babeliya, Salahuddin, Anwar 2, Taghyeer, Baghdad and Fallujah.  AP quotes Al Jazeera stating, "We cover all sides of the stories in Iraq and have done for many years.  The fact that so many channels have been hit all at once though suggests this is an indiscriminate decision."


Is Al Jazeera really that stupid?

Maybe so.

First up, a fact: Al Jazeera does not cover all sides of the story in Iraq.  They cover Nouri's side and every now and then toss in a piece about the KRG (often involving religion).  They don't attend the protests, they don't cover the protests (a sentence stating the fact that protests have been going on since December is not "coverage").  They do a lousy job unless their goal is to cover Nouri.

Why are they targeted?

Nouri is so lucky that the press, hit with a two-by-four, wants to stand there in shock asking, "What did I do?"

A bully bullies because that's what they do and that's how they get what they want.

Nouri's suffered some bad press last week (not from Al Jazzera) and this is the way to bully and intimidate the press.  His forces killed people Tuesday at a sit-in.  He has been called out for that.  By outlets not in Iraq, granted.  But he has been called out.

So he's trying to scare the press that is in Iraq, trying to control what gets covered.

He's a thug and he's a bully.

If Al Jazeera is stupid enough to consider for even a moment that they've been harsh to Nouri, that goes to how stupid that outlet is.

And that public statment goes to the fact that, if allowed back in, they will grovel at the feet of Nouri in their coverage which is what he wants.

The press isn't very bright which goes a long way towards explaining the state of the world.  We'll note other reactions tomorrow by which point hopefully people will have stopped asking (as Nouri wants them to) "What did I do!!!" but instead see this as just another one of Nouri's many assaults on the press.







I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.


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 Isaiah's latest goes up after this and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Holly Near, Go Away" went up earlier today.    The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.







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