-----Original Message-----
From: Medialens Media Alerts
Sent: 27 September 2005 14:56
Subject: Peter Beaumont Of The Observer On 'The Iraq Project'
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
September 27, 2005
RAPID RESPONSE MEDIA ALERT:
PETER BEAUMONT OF THE OBSERVER ON THE IRAQ PROJECT
"There are two paradigms for interpreting the success of the Iraq
project." So writes Peter Beaumont in the Observer.
We wonder if Beaumont would describe the September 11 attacks as "the
New York project", or "the American project". Would he talk of Saddam
Hussein's 1990 "Kuwait project"?
Beaumont continues:
"Confronted with a vigorous but limited Sunni insurgency, bolstered by
al-Qaeda atrocities, it is tempting to focus on the violence; to put the
question of engagement in Iraq in terms of a cost-benefit analysis.
"In one column, you put the totals of US and UK dead - going on 3,000
and 100 respectively - and then try to extract a meaning for those lost
lives. In this equation, no progress on the security front equals wasted
lives. Its ultimate logic is withdrawal." (Beaumont, Despair is still
not an option, The Observer, September 25, 2005;
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1577939,00.html)
It is remarkable that Beaumont can include US and UK military deaths in
one column while excluding 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, subsequently
mentioning them only as an afterthought (see below). Should not the
death of Iraqi civilians - innocents who are neither paid nor trained to
place their lives in danger - be prominent in any such calculation?
Beaumont adds:
"But there is a second paradigm. This demands that the headline violence
is stripped out and that Iraq's progress is counted not by the bodies of
foreign soldiers or of Iraqis [the afterthought], but by how much
democracy has begun to take root. The answer to the question of whether
British and US troops should remain should not be calculated by the
scale of their losses, but by whether they are doing any good."
Again, astonishingly, Beaumont focuses on "the scale of their [British
and US] losses" - the incalculably greater suffering of the Iraqi
population has once again disappeared. This is shameful.
Beaumont assumes it is reasonable to attempt to estimate how much
democracy has taken root. How would he have reacted to a Russian
journalist making the same point on 'democracy building' in Afghanistan
in the 1980s? Where is the evidence that genuine democracy has ever been
any kind of consideration in the minds of US-UK planners? He casually
makes this presumption just days after UK forces used a tank to smash
down the walls of an Iraqi prison and declared two rescued soldiers
completely beyond the reach of Iraqi law.
In a good example of media obfuscation, Beaumont writes:
"It is now redundant to argue whether the invasion was right or wrong.
Instead, having brought down Saddam, there is an obligation to try to
establish a largely stable Iraq."
A Media Lens reader responded to Beaumont:
Presumably, you mean that if an illegal course of action is pursued for
long enough, the criminal status of the perpetrators is no longer a
matter of concern. Does this mean that if Saddam Hussein had managed to
stay in Kuwait for twenty months or so, you would have argued against
throwing him out? If not, why not? (Philip Challinor, email copied to
Media Lens, September 25, 2005)
The issue of right and wrong obviously remains at the heart of the
issue, for any reasonable person. Beaumont conveniently muddies the
picture - first mentioning 'democracy' but then downgrading this to a
concern for 'stability'. The latter covers a multitude of sins and
horrors, as he well knows. Iraq was stabilised under Saddam, with
Western support, after all. Democracy and stability are not the same
thing at all.
Beaumont continues: "Two years of mentoring and training, building
democracy and institutions, have had little effect in moving beyond
factional politics."
This would be a curious failure but for the reality of what has been
omitted - the massive abuse of US-UK power terrorising and killing the
population. Beaumonts filtering of the truth - no mention of the hidden
Bush-Blair agenda: of the strategic interests, of oil, of permanent US
bases being built; of the greed, corruption and superpower violence
behind this "mentoring" process - is remarkable. There is no sense at
all of the ferocious Iraqi opposition to the occupation, of the outrage
at what has been done to their country. And done in the name of what
exactly? In the name of Western security, then the war on terror,
then to put an end to Iraqi suffering; and now, finally, democracy?
Beaumonts final comment sums up the article: "it is far too early to
cut and run."
Individuals or groups engaged in violent criminal actions should desist,
or be made to desist, immediately. The question of 'cutting and running'
does not arise. Beaumont appears to assume that criminals have a duty to
continue engaging in criminal actions until they have somehow undone the
damage of their crimes. This is outrageous.
SUGGESTED ACTION
The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect
for others. When writing emails to journalists, we strongly urge readers
to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.
You could ask: Why do you mention Iraqi casualty figures merely as an
afterthought, failing even to mention that 100,000 civilians are
estimated to have been killed? How can the issue of right and wrong now
be redundant in considering the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq?
Why do you argue that US-UK forces should not cut and run when in fact
they are engaged in massive crimes against humanity, and should desist
immediately?
Write to Peter Beaumont
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Write to Observer editor Roger Alton
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please also send all emails, particularly any replies from the media, to
the Media Lens editors:
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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ABDUL WAHID OSMAN BELAL
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
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