Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (43518)	5/11/2004 4:12:51 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Respond to of 793750

There's something in your reaction to all this that just doesn't ring quite true to me. You're throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and not accidentally. There's something else involved here. You're too ready to just chuck it all and declare defeat. By any historical measure, this is not that bad. It is a huge embarrassment, yes. But war is never anything but ugly. The United States killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to win WWII. Horrible, grisly deaths. And you can't stomach the behavior of a few sadistic idiots with digital cameras? Get a grip!

To: Ilaine who wrote (43518)	5/11/2004 4:34:10 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793750

SCANDAL BOTHERS LIBERALS MORE THAN IT BOTHERS MANY ARABS By STEVE DUNLEAVY May 11, 2004 -- I WISH my English were as articulate as his, but a slight accent whispers that he is from the Middle East. His name is Mouafac Harb, one of the two Arab TV reporters who interviewed President Bush over the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison. "The story plays different here than in the Arab world," said Mouafac, news director of the widely watched Alhurra Network, which means "the free one." "Believe me, the story will die in the Arab world before it fades in Washington. "I'm not saying it's not a big story in the United States," said Mouafac, who was born in Beirut. "But in the Arab world, they say clearly: 'What is it that we have here that is so different?' The Arab world has been living under torture and execution for hundreds of years. "Obviously, the fundamentalists and terrorists, a minority, are having a field day talking about the hypocrisy of democracy and freedom. But torture and execution are second nature to them. Mouafac sees some American journalists and politicians as naive and self-destructive. "In the Arab world, you read an Arab newspaper and they have the op-ed page on page one. You immediately know the agenda. English-language newspapers are different - clearer and more independent. "Now there are many in the Arab world who are not bi-lingual but tri-lingual - and they get the message pretty quick. A lot of the Arab world will say 'Why can't we have this?' " Now, what does that mean? "A leader of an Arab country who will come out and apologize to the world about mistakes made the same way as President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld! It could not happen in the Arab world." He bristles when some say he is in lock-step with the Bush administration. "That makes me very angry. I'm a proud Arab-American - as are a lot of young Arabs who work for me. We are offended. We are publicly funded, independent and have nothing to do with the administration." I haven't spent years and years in the Middle East, but I've been there on and off going back to 1966 - unlike a lot of knee-jerk liberal politicians who want the head of the best secretary of defense we've ever had, responsible for 2 million troops and fighting on two fronts. Those politicians don't get it, but a man like Mouafac, born in the Arab world, who knows the Arab world and has seen the Arab world, does. "The story will die in the Arab world before it fades in Washington," he said. Ain't politics in the free world grand? nypost.com