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On the cover of the latest issue of Newsweek you'll find the image of a
young Middle Eastern boy against a stark white background holding an
automatic weapon. Above him are the words: "The Next Jihadists."Inside, the article begins: "Ammar will tell you he's proud to be carrying a gun. His father was a brigadier in Saddam Hussein's Army, a man who saw combat in his country's several wars, and from an early age Ammar had accompanied him to the shooting range. 'I got used to the sound of guns then,' Ammar says."
Most Americans won't bother reading this or any other article. However, the cover image will be more than enough to provoke knee-jerk reactions about towelheads raising their kids to wage war.
Anyone who makes time to actually read the NewsWeak article might encounter this quote from Hassan Ali, a sociologist at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs: "These children will come to believe in the principles of force and violence. There's no question that society as a whole is going to feel the effects in the future."
What if NewsWeak had opted to instead present the image a young American boy holding any number of weapons? Imagine that above this tow-headed, lily white lad were these words: "The Next Imperialists." Or perhaps even: "The Next War Criminals."
To find Ammar-like quotes, NewsWeak need look no further than a January 2004 New York Times fluff piece about American snipers ("In Iraq's Murky Battle, Snipers Offer U.S. a Precision Weapon"). "Most snipers are familiar with firearms even before joining the armed forces," the newspaper of record explains, going on to discuss two snipers who "grew up on farms, and both owned their first rifles before they were 10. They fondly remember hunting deer as youngsters." Fondly?
Factoids are important so here's one from the National Center for Health Statistics: "Every two years, more Americans die from gunshots than there were American soldiers killed during the entire Vietnam War." Toss in a few mentions of violent movies and sadistic video games, paint ball, war toys, street gangs, and the endless parade of U.S. military interventions, and you'd almost have yourself a NewsWeak cover story. All that would be missing was a pull quote from someone‹anyone‹with a PhD blabbing on about how the brutal American culture would lead its children to "believe in the principles of force and violence."
Journalism sure is easy, huh?
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
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Newsweek's cover boys
Friday, 19 January 2007
Friday, 19 January 2007
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Comments (5)
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a guest
said:
 |
God damned dirty hippies Your site is a joke. Who's side are you people on a way? Granted most Americans don't understand Middle Eastern culture greatly. Unfortunately on 9/11 we were forced to confront it and many brave boys and girls from the farm proudly represent us on the battlefield justly killing the enemy. Clinton put his head in the sand and weakly lobbed a few Patriots at UBL. History will judge the appeasers and other weakminded wanna-be hippies. It will be borne that while Bush has indead made mistakes the fact that he stood up took action and the fight to the Islamofacists to protect US citizens and US interests. |
a guest
said:
|
Hippies? Is this a Time Warp? "Bush has indead made mistakes the fact that he stood up took action and the fight to the Islamofacists to protect US citizens and US interests." Bush and the boys took up the fight to protect their own interests and subvert US citizens' democracy and freedom. Americans must now fight the Busheviks and the corporate fascists endangering their constitution and human rights. |
a guest
said:
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jon: my god! what have we become in this country? this newsweek cover makes one sick, sick, sick.......and it will serve its purpose: the justification of mass slaughter of middle-eastern civilians and the charnel house we've made of iraq and are soon to make of syria and iran. we owe the world one long mea culpa.... is america any longer redeemable? |
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