general @ 21 Jun 2006 02:55 pm by DrBill
According to Worldnetdaily.com: “The Middle East news website Al Jazeera published a provocative photo purporting to show a “massacre” by Marines in Haditha, Iraq, despite the fact several papers already issued retractions admitting the image was of fishermen executed by terrorists months before the incident under investigation†… Even after a retraction Al Jazeera maintained: “The Haditha massacre is far worse than My Lai,” … and that is the problem with the negative press from Iraq. In many cases the ‘facts’ are being provided by that bastion of the free press … Al Jazeera because the American media is rarely following troops to their bases or into battle. Therefore, much of the negative press coming out of Iraq has literally been filtered through the enemy. If it hadn’t been for the killing of al Zerqawi and the capture of his data, we would still be hearing only the hand wringing, not the successes. This is further evidenced by the fact that most of the footage broadcast across America for the past year or so has been file footage … until the story on Haditha. Then American airwaves and newspapers were filled with images of bodies … innocents, so we are told, ‘murdered by Marines’ so claims the likes of x-Marine, Rep. John Murtha. But it turns out that, in at least one case, the main stream media accepted a false image … from the enemy … without checking the source before publication. Of course, since the Murthas in our society, get the headlines, it accepts these stories and images as factual. Both the enemy, within and without understand that once such an explicit image is viewed it is almost impossible to forget, and the only thing that is attached to it are the headlines … ‘Murdered by Marines’. Yet the victims were murdered by the bad guys. But a funny thing happened on the way to the retraction, while there had been condemnation for these killing when they were thought to be caused by Americans, there was no condemnation, from either Al Jazeera or the main stream media in America, when it was found that the terrorists were responsible. Al Jezeera punctuated that fact by running a further condemnation on the American military. It is reasonable to ask, ‘Why is it that when these people were ‘murdered in cold blood by Americans’ that it was a massacre, a travesty, and most important a headline across the world. But when it was proved they were killed by terrorists, it was immediately demoted to a ‘non-story’.’ One might think, in a logical world, that a press retraction of this significance would be common knowledge … after all the victims ‘status’ had not changed, only the murderers had. But that is not the case. The world’s condemnation seems to be reserved for only Americans … no matter their efforts, no matter their heroism, no matter their altruism; there is almost never a ‘thank you’ given our military. It is as if we had lost the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq that nothing has succeeded. This is why I personally thank organizations, such as Vets For Freedom (VetsForFreedom.org), for their non-partisan effort in trying to find out the truth from Iraq. Two young men, one a former soldier, the other a Marine, have returned to the war zone to report the truth, rather than the spin. One may follow there progress for the next two weeks on the above website. When non-partisan individuals risk their lives to do what America’s main stream media has refused to do … try to get to the truth by going to the fight … I have nothing but admiration for their efforts and integrity. When I ask one of them why he was doing this, why leave his family that he so loves after almost three full tours in Iraq endangering his very being … he said, “This is the most important thing I have ever done for America.â€Â
I countered that I agreed with his family … that he had already done enough. After all, he was a decorated veteran of virtually every battle in both Iraq I and II … but the young man looked me in the eye and said, ‘Not many understand this enemy, we do. Wade and I feel we must do all we can to insure that America is safe. No matter what the press says, if we loose in Iraq, we will eventually loose America, and my son will not grow up with the freedoms you and I have enjoyed. We must do all we can to report the truth.’Â
I still tried to talk him out of going … but I knew I couldn’t … and once again Marilyn and I will fast and pray for his safety … that is the least we can do for the few patriots who dare to sacrifice all for what is becoming a mostly thankless job of safe guarding our way of life.  So in the end, all I could say to him was God bless, God’s speed, and I am proud to be called … his father.
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