Mohamed al-Hatfield vs. Ahmed al-McCoy
By William Fisher
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
Saturday 13 January 2007
It's been a few days since President Bush spoke to the American people about his new "strategy" for "victory" in Iraq. Reading the newspapers, listening to radio and watching television, one would think all the words that could possibly be written or spoken on this speech have finally been exhausted.
But when the punditocracy gets hold of this kind of issue, the last word is never written or spoken. And I am under no delusions that my words will be anything near the last.
But I will write them anyway, because there were a couple of things that struck me.
One of them was the way of most of both the print and broadcast media bought into the president' s characterization of his plan as both "new" or a "strategy." It is not new; we've had several unsuccessful "surges" in the past. And what Mr. Bush terms a "strategy" is little more than a tactical adjustment. It is "stay the course" 101.1.
The second thing that struck me was the almost total America-centricity of the media coverage. This seemed especially true on cable television. On MSNBC, for example, analysis of Bush's speech was left in the hands of such well-known Middle East scholars as Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, and assorted retired US military officers. The result of choices like that took all the complexity and nuance out of the discussion. But I suppose that, since John Kerry's 2004 campaign, nuance has become a dirty word.
Granted, America has a huge stake in how this misadventure unfolds. It is the blood of our surging troops that will be spilled, and our tax dollars that will get spent. Still, with all of their bulging Rolodexes, wouldn't you think the cable news folks might have come up with a commentator or two who actually knows something about the war zone, its history, its customs, and its idiosyncrasies?
The fact is that, without this kind of information, the American public has little chance of really understanding the roots or the dynamics of what's happening in Iraq today.
As I listened to Pat Buchanan spouting on about the US political party maneuvering going on behind the scenes, I recalled an experience that said a lot that wasn't being explained.
When I lived in Egypt, I had a driver named Said. I once went with Said to his little village about 30 miles outside Cairo, where we were greeted by and spoke with many of his brothers, sisters, cousins, neighbors, etc. These were people Said knew all his life; he had watched some of them being born. This was his part of his tribe.
The rest of the article is at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011307B.shtml
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