Again, despite having experience working in the Middle East I feel there are several blogs which contribute greater public discourse on the topic than I, considering I really only focus on that area a few days a week at most. One thing has recently caught my attention, however, with respect to the escalating situation with Iran.
Last week the administration couldn’t quite get its story straight with respect to the potential supply of weapons from Iranian special forces to Iraqi insurgents. Now one can look at various aspects of the media coverage over the past 6 months. One week Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is speaking about destroying Israel and the West, the next he wants diplomatic discussions. First they have a secret nuclear program, and then it is for peaceful purposes. Stories even run to the extreme on both sides of the fence from a conservative view that Iran wants to convert the world to Islam and a liberal interpretation that the US will conduct a false-flag attack on soldiers or sailors in the Gulf to justify limited bombing runs.
What I find interesting is the lack of reporting on the middle class democratic movement in Iran. Prior to the election of Ahmadinejad and the growing rhetoric on our two countries foreign policy, several stories were run discussing the US-Persian influence, via satellite on sympathetic ears inside Iran. The US government had even committed funds to support such efforts to expand the Iranian middle-class and expand the push for democracy. I have two questions: (1) where has the reporting on this situation gone and (2) have we succeeded in alienating the one constituency in Iran that may have supported us?
February 19, 2007 at 11:25 am
First, I am not creating a moral equivalence between anyone, though I’m not going to pretend to even come close to supporting the Bush Administration. Second, I have read my history and I am aware free speech and government criticism in Iran isn’t exactly welcomed in the country. But neither do I believe that creating absolutes in dealing with Iran is going to solve the problem either. I was just simply curious how we heard so much reporting on a segment of the Iranian population that did not favor the radical regime and leaned toward Western culture and now all we seem to cover is radical islamists with a secret nuclear program.
February 19, 2007 at 11:30 am
You mean the drive-by media? Of course. The Bush Administration is not bombing Iran are they? We are trying to topple the Iranian dictatorship from within, without dropping bombs. But we cannot rule out the possibility that we may have to drop bombs in order to protect ourselves, the region, and the world from a nuclear holocaust.
It is curious that we only see the Iranian nuke program on the evening news. This is because they are trying to make Bush look like the bad guy.
February 19, 2007 at 11:41 am
And thus the point I was originally trying to make. “If it bleeds, it leads.” Why waste time and energy contributing to actual journalism and reporting when figuring out why Britney shaved her head is so much more entertaining.