To ABC’s Night Line in September 2004:
Oh, Ted just made a funny! He asked, “How do we know what is going on in Iraq?”
Well, that's easy, Ted, .... go read the FOREIGN press. Maybe they could do a remedial course in journalism too.... oh, and congratulations on your propaganda award, er, I mean, your embedded award. WELL DONE! You deserve a pat on your friendly little lapdog head! Yes, our "watchdog" US media has shown the tenacity, veracity and audacity of Scooby Doo! No reason to start reporting on those who are on the receiving end of our bombs and bullets!!! No sir!!!! We can't have that, now can we? How will you win your propaganda awards???
To MSNBC in November 2004:
It has been brought to my attention that you had someone refer to the Palestian people as "filthy animals" on the Imus show on MSNBC. I just want you to know that I think such language is irresponsible, immature, prejudiced, and pure evil. It is also likly to inflame people and inspire them to think of violence as a response. Please clean up your act. All people deserve respect. Even you.
Their response:
Thank you for expressing your concerns about the comments made on "Imus in the Morning." "Imus" is produced by WFAN radio and is simulcast by MSNBC. The views expressed on the program are not those of MSNBC. Having said that, it was unfortunate that these remarks were telecast on MSNBC. We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by these remarks.
(Are they ever responsible for anything? – dancewater)
Letter to Night Line in December 2004:
I am of the opinion that you should show all of war, good and bad. For example, you should have shown a shot of the man who was injured/killed in the scene you did show. And close ups of the dead people in the street of Fallujah. We saw all the horror of 9/11, didn't we? I remember bodies falling from the towers, films of the black clouds of smoke, scenes of injured and grieving people.
And I don't feel this was because we are an open society, and therefore should do this, although that is a decent argument. We need to do this to stop war. It is not workable as a long-term solution anymore. If the general American public was fully aware of what happened in Afghanistan, then the support of the Iraq war would have been less than the 70% it was at the start of this war.
We need to do this so the American public will know what the Arab public and the rest of the world knows. There is a huge disconnect between American knowledge and the knowledge of the rest of the world. How can we ever live in peace if we don't even have access to the same set of general facts?
We need to know what war is fully like, because we have the capacity (as humans) to make war that can wipe us off the planet. Hard to imagine that will happen, but who's to say what the tipping point is? Has there ever been weapons invented that were not used, no matter how horrible? Do you want your grandchildren to be safe?
I believe war is a racket: promoted by the rich (who get richer) and fought by the poor (who get dead). And today, more and more innocents are caught in the middle.
In Iraq, Americans need to see what they are doing. Today, I heard that Harrison Ford is going to star in a movie about "taking" Fallujah. Can you imagine how that will go over in the Arab world? A sanitized, heroic movie about Fallujah with no mention of civilian casualties or civilian suffering. This is ignorant, and it is evil.
We need to know fully what our government is doing and how that is perceived in the world. We need to know this so that we know "why they hate us"... and what we can do about it.
So, as far as "you don't know the half of it"....well, the press, particularly the TV press, needs to show ALL of it. If you fail to do so (and you have- you slightly less than the rest of the TV press) then you are promoting war and injustice and prejudice and ignorance in the world. Is that the kind of world you want for your grandchildren?
As for Iraq: we tried to warn you. WE would be the antiwar protestors. We knew that the US government, all on it's own, would totally fuck things up there. We knew that the Iraqi people, given a fair chance, would vote us out of their country... and failing that, use violence to get us out. Since the current US government has no intention of leaving, things will continue to get worse and worse there. The election will change nothing.
And as to the "conventional wisdom" that we cannot just up and leave, well, that is pure nonsense. The very same people who believed Powell, who thought Saddam had WMDs, who thought Saddam had something to do with al Qaeda, who thought Saddam was a threat to the USA, who thought we would be welcomed as liberators (ok, they were right about that in some small degree for a limited time).... they are the very same people who say we cannot just up and leave, because of the unrest that will be unleashed. Hey, they been wrong for so long and so often, why would they have any credibility today? They don't, trust me.
Yes, unrest will be unleashed, and the current civil war will turn into a regional war.... it will anyway (another thing WE TRIED TO TELL YOU). And the longer it takes to get the US out of there, the worse it will be. And the longer the US is in the area, the more people will be killed, simply because we have such superior firepower (alas, we do not have superior minds).
Yes, we are in deep. WE TRIED TO WARN YOU!!! But, the mainstream press and the powers in DC failed to listen. Just as you will surely fail to listen and act on the words I write here.
BUT DON'T SAY I DIDN'T TRY TO WARN YOU.
Letter to News Night (CNN) in April 2005:
"Were not the result of simple bad luck, or a once-in-a-lifetime 'perfect storm,' as some would have it. Rather, they were the product of poor intelligence collection, an analytical process that was driven by assumptions and inferences rather than data, inadequate validation and vetting of dubious intelligence sources, and numerous other breakdowns in the various processes that Intelligence Community professionals collectively describe as intelligence 'tradecraft.' In many ways, the Intelligence Community simply did not do the job that it exists to do."
So, they were all "dead wrong". I figured it out (well before the war started) that there were no nuclear WMDs in Iraq, and if they had any biological or chemical weapons, they could not hurt the USA. How did I do it? How am I so much more brilliant than our intelligence agencies and nearly all of US press and US Congress?
I used: common sense, an AOL internet connection and a six year old notebook computer. Oh, and I had cable TV. That was useless for keeping me informed however.
To News Night (CNN) in April 2005:
Remember when I first emailed you about Iraqi civilian casualties? Still unreported, for the most part, in our news. And how in June 2003, you claimed that people who thought WMDs were found in Iraq didn't read the newspapers or follow the news? Here it is almost two years later, and 56% of our fellow Americans think WMDs were found in Iraq. And I'll bet they believe that nonsense about bringing "freedom and democracy" to the Iraqi people. We are bringing the Iraqis the freedom of the grave and the democracy of death.
To MSNBC in April 2005:
I just watched your video on Fallujah. That was worthless.
To Fox News in April 2005:
Mr. Gibson,
There is no evidence to support your claim that Saddam was behind the Oklahoma City bombing. And, as to your statement: "Well, for one thing, I submit George W. Bush didn't ignore it after September 11, 2001. He realized then that Iraq was behind a lot of the attacks on the U.S. and it was time for it to stop." What on earth are you referring to here?
To ABC News in April 2005:
There was a story today called "Rare Look Inside Baghdad Emergency Room". This should not be rare, it should be a common, almost daily report of what is happening in the country that America is voluntarily occupying right now. Also, there should be daily questions asked of our "elected" and selected officials of "WHY ARE WE THERE?" and "HOW ARE WE IMPROVING THE SITUATION?".
Always keep in mind this fact: as long as Iraq is unstable, the US authorities can argue to keep our troops there - and the sheeple who watch TV for information will go along with it. That means that Halliburton and Bectel and god-knows-who-else can sit on a big pile of oil while OPEC produces more and more and the people in the world pay more and more for the oil. A great money making scheme, no? Think about it.
To Aaron Brown at CNN in April 2005:
Yes, I know you discount anyone ‘who wasn’t there’ but the real problem is that you also discount or ignore those WHO WERE THERE, OR WHO ARE THERE. Like, for example, Ritter. You have him on your "news" show and talk about his irrelevant arrest record instead of Iraq. Have you had Dahr Jamail on your show? He has been in Iraq for quite awhile, and is now in the USA. Funny how you discount a whole bunch of people who criticize you because "they weren't there" and purposefully ignore those "who were there".
And people who beat their kids justify it on the basis of "they needed it". You can justify any thing in the end. I'm sure your mother taught you better. (Actually, I’m not so sure.)
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