Other Columns by Cliff Kincaid
Cliff Kincaid Bio

Printer-Friendly Version

The Washington Post has pulled out of a Pentagon-sponsored Freedom Walk to commemorate 9/11 and support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because it was deemed too political. Meanwhile, the New York Times, CBS, and other news organizations have joined with the ACLU in demanding that the Pentagon release more sensational photos and videos of Iraqi prisoner abuse. The inevitable result of such disclosure, according to General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is that Islamic terrorists will exploit the material and kill Americans. Do our media care?

Our media will rally around a reporter who goes to jail to protect her sources. But when the Pentagon tries to keep potential propaganda material from falling into the hands of the enemy, the media are in court with the ACLU against the Pentagon.

The American people have to wise up to the media's tricks. We are involved in a propaganda war that may be more important than what happens on the battlefield. Newsweek's false "Koran in the toilet" story was only one example of how we are losing the media war. It caused violent protests across the Middle East and 17 deaths. The new prisoner abuse images, obtained by an Army soldier who helped uncover the scandal, is not "false" in the Newsweek sense. But it will be exploited to give a false or warped perception of what U.S. military personnel are doing in Iraq. As Myers says in a court document, "It is probable that Al-Qaeda and other groups will seize upon these images and videos as grist for their propaganda mill which will result in, besides violent attacks, increased terrorist recruitment, continued financial support, and exacerbation of tensions between the Iraqi and Afghani populaces and U.S. and Coalition forces."

Actually, it won't just be Al Qaeda. Our own media will endlessly exploit the photographs. The story will be so big that cable-television news might temporarily drop the Natalee Holloway story. Our media seem to operate by the standard of using and exploiting anything that will undermine the war and President Bush. Lately, this has been Cindy Sheehan, the poor brainwashed mother of a dead soldier. But more Abu Ghraib photos would be too good to ignore, at least for most of our media.

We have to face up to the fact that the enemy has the U.S. on the run, using our own media against us. When Al Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, recently threatened a Vietnam in Iraq, he was referring to an American defeat but it's clear that he was not just referring to the military aspect of the conflict. The U.S. was not defeated militarily in Vietnam. We lost because our own media came to believe it was a cause not worth fighting. That caused the American people to lose heart and the Congress to cut and run. We are seeing the same thing happen in regard to Iraq. And the worst may be yet to come. A ruling in the ACLU case by Clinton-appointed U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein could come on August 30.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2