An Echo, not a Voice
Buried deep in today's Washington Post is this eyebrow raising line:
"Young Saudi men have joined the Sunni insurgency as foreign fighters, while there have been persistent reports that Saudi citizens have provided financial aid to the Sunni insurgency."
We constantly hear about Iran's involvement in Iraq, but almost nothing about Saudi Arabia's. The Saudis sympathize with the deposed Sunni minority and are fearful of Shiite power in Iraq, and Saudi Arabia's interests are to some extent aligned with the anti-American insurgency. By contrast, Iran has good relations with the government that the U.S. installed in Iraq's Green Zone and undoubtedly wants it to consolidate its power over the country. Why, one wonders, would Iran's involvement in Iraq get so much more news coverage and spark so much more "alarm"? Why is there so much more concern about the unguarded Iranian border? Saudia Arabia shares 500 miles of border with Iraq and its citizens infiltrate Iraq for the specific purpose of fighting Americans. Why is there so much more interest in Iran on today's news, editorial, and opinion pages?
The answer is blindingly obvious. The powers-that-be in Washington have more interest in news stories demonizing Iran. And the news media echo and accommodate the priorities of those powers that be. Media attention thus is strategically directed to advance that agenda. The voice of the U.S. news media today is little more than an echo chamber for powerful interests and public officials.
posted by Frances @ 10:41 AM
3 Comments:
Excellent point, Frances. While we're on the subject of the MSM merely being the mouthpiece of Bush administration agitprop against Iranian and Syrian involvement in Iraq, it should also be noted how Turkey has long been infiltrating the Kurdish region in the north of Iraq to destabilize it and frustrate Kurdish independence. How much do we hear about that?
So, we have Iran and Syria helping the Shiites in southern Iraq and Lebanon (Hezbollah), Saudi Arabia (and undoubtedly Jordan and Egypt) helping the Sunnis in Iraq and Lebanon, we have the US and Israel supporting the Christians in Lebanon and the moderate Sunnis in Jordan and Egypt, and we have Turkey trying to frustrate an independent Kurdistan. At some point the US is going to have to take sides in Iraq and support the moderate Sunnis and the Kurds against the Shiites and Iran/Syria. Of course the problem with this is that there may not be many moderate Sunnis left in Iraq, and non-moderate Sunnis are better known as al-Qaeda. Also, there’s a lot of oil in the south of Iraq and the US already kicked out a secular, pro moderate-Sunni dictator. Add in European, Russian, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani interests in the region, and what you have is a real powder keg, and it would not take much of a spark to make it all explode next year.
Meanwhile the MSM continues to repeat Bush administration talking-points on Iran and Syria, failing to mention of course that it was Bush's policies that made them stronger players in Iraq to begin with.
Ditto to Paul. Great post, Frances.
This issue has just started to get some attention in the MSM, but slowly. I think the catalyst is the "pick a winner: Shi'a!" strategy being floated by some of the most desperate-and-dumber-than-thou conservatives, which has forced other observers to confront some of the hidden consequences (and ironies) of the current policy as well. What I find interesting about these developments is that they offer the prospect of making Bill Kristol's and Michael Moore's heads explode simultaneously as their basic assumptions about Bush policy are torn asunder.
I failed to read the WaPo story referenced by Frances before I posted, but having just read it, it jogged a memory in me of an OpEd piece in the same paper just a few weeks ago. If you follow my link and read this piece, you'll see that a certain consultant to al-Faisal (the Saudi ambassador and subject of Frances' link) named Nawaf Obaid on November 29th warned that Saudi Arabia would not stand by and let the Shia slaughter Sunnis if the US pulled out of Iraq. He also suggested that Saudi Arabia could bring down oil prices to squeeze the Iranians. After that article, al-Faisal severed his consultancy relationship with Obaid. Undboutedly this was just for appearence. It truly is a mess-in-potamia over there, thanks in no small part to Bush's invasion of Iraq.
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