[antimedia] antimedia: When all you have is a hammer....

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Posted by antimedia:
When all you have is a hammer....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1170823139.shtml


   ....everything looks like [1]a nail. To the media, all the bloodshed
   in Iraq is sectarian violence. The truth on the ground is a bit more
   complicated.

     Soon a plume of thick smoke was rising from the ground and it
     wasn't close to any of the places above. Minutes later I saw the
     first reports on TV talking about a huge explosion in al-Sadriya
     market and casualty tolls were increasing every other minuteâ25,
     then 40, then 75â¦an hour later news was talking bout more than a
     hundred killed in what the media like to call a "predominantly Shia
     neighborhood".
     Al-Sadriya doesn't belong to a certain sect; it's a commercial area
     where shoppers and shopkeepers are simply Baghdadis but sadly the
     media is keen on adding sectarian descriptions of the attacked
     targets in their reports. These descriptions draw the path for
     blind retaliators who in this case shortly responded by showering
     what the media calls "predominantly Sunni neighborhoods" with
     mortars to kill and wound dozens.
     I can swear none of the victims in these attacks had any connection
     to the fighting among the rivals; like Amir Taheri said the other
     day, this is not a sectarian war but a war of the sectarians;
     fanatics and extremists start the fight but innocents who never
     thought of carrying arms to kill people of other faiths are paying
     the heavier price.

   Is there sectarian violence in Iraq? Of course there is! But that's
   not all the violence in Iraq, or even the majority of it. But because
   the media could care less about accuracy or truth, it's all "sectarian
   violence.
   What would happen to the attitudes of Americans and others in the
   world if the violence in Iraq was described as Muslim on Muslim
   violence? Or if the perpetrators were (rightly) called murderers and
   thugs, violent criminals and twisted Al Qaeda sadists? Do you think
   the view of the war might be slightly different?
   By calling the war "sectarian violence" the media falls right into Al
   Qaeda's trap, parroting their carefully crafted claims and increasing
   the chance that those not aware of the truth will think it's a
   hopeless affair, a lost cause.

References

   1. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2007/02/more-violence-in-baghdad-as-city.html