Being Mean to Moonbats. This delicious photo-account of a moonbat (sorry, what else should I call them?) gathering in Washington comes via Armavirumque. On display is the distinctly unfair behaviour of the various and colourful moonbats themselves, the aggressive rudeness of the media, and a well-timed and tightly focussed emigre Iraqi intervention, stealing the show:

"everything is fine, everyone has food, there are 200 newspapers when there were once only two"

History the Teacher:

'in the Colonial Office memoranda of the day, certain phrases recur like the haunting refrain of a gloomy chanson on an old 78 with the needle stuck'


There speaks a man who reads and appreciates the lessons of history well enough to understand how the present differs.

Russian rebukes Kennedy for being leftwing defeatist. That's the refreshing scenario in this article in the Moscow Times (cheers Glenn), where Sen Ed Kennedy's sense of history is taken to task. What's even more refreshing is that Russian military tactics in Grozny are freely contrasted with those of the US in Fallujah- with an overwhelming thumbs up for the Marines and a thumbs down for Putin's paltry platoons.

Media-master Denis Boyles writes very well indeed. I should really subscribe to NRO, but since I don't I have to wait until the scraps fall from some rich man's table down to pauvre yours truly. Boyles has the rare art of being able to condense intelligent observation into diamantine phraseology: I think it's called literature. In the latest thing I've read of his he describes Merde in France (from whence this link) as 'the champagne of attitudinal weblogs'. 'Attitudinal weblogs', eh? that may not be coined by Boyles in this article, but it is certainly descriptive. Other almost randomly selected gems include 'In war, the guys who work tirelessly to get you to surrender may reasonably be called your enemies', and 'We must learn the lesson of Madrid: Terrorists are people, too'. All these little gems when strung together make a kind of media necklace that's quite brilliant to see.

Unraveling the Media. Despite Mark Steyn's obvious scepticism about the media's Jeremiac approach to events in Iraq (see 'something to read' below), he did let drop an interesting comment that shows a certain amount of anxiety. He said,
'The passivity of the Arabs, the sensitivity of the coalition and the defeatism of the media is a potentially disastrous combination'.


Interesting then to find Wretchard identifying a pattern in some of the journalistic 'scoops' that have been emerging in reputable papers from the most dangerous areas in Iraq at the moment. His suggestion is that the jihadis are targeting journalists with a practised kidnap routine intended to emphasise the 'muhajideen' struggle that the US are facing. It reminded me of Saddam Hussein's hackneyed novels that played on certain stereotypes of strength and heroism. This kind of approach touches all the buttons: the passivity of the Arabs with their tendency to accept posturing bullies; the sensitivity of the coalition as they glimpse the depth of hatred their opponents have for them; and the defeatism of the media as they project images of a battle-hardened and defiant enemy. For examples of the defeatism of the media of course, we need go no further than the BBC.

Something to read with a nice cup of tea.

Surprise, Surprise! Happy Easter!

Norm quotes an excellent analysis of the Al-Sadr revolt. I say excellent because it echoes (and we all like to be echoed) something I said in the first of my posts on April 5th - that Al-Sadr was a ploy as far as Sistani was concerned, to gain leverage on the US.

[
This is a post I thought I ought to qualify, since the odd person comes across it in the course of a search. Since I wrote it I know I lot more about the issue, as most of us do in fact. The Darfur conflict is clearly strongly racial in character. The only thing to be said for my argument outlined below is that the Islamic government of Sudan is clearly still involved in the ethnic cleansing of Darfur- and should be held responsible.]


The BBC, Islam, and Sudan. I speak of the troubles in the Darfur region of Sudan. The BBC's approach to Islam is seen in this report on the plight of the population of Darfur as they are hounded out of their dwellings by what the BBC calls the 'Jangaweed' (elsewhere referred to, with more a convincing ring, as the 'Jingaweit'), a 'shadowy group of Arab militiamen'. In an article on AllAfrica.com, Roger Winter of USAID is quoted describing 'Arab militias, aerial bombardment and a massive pattern of rape.' To be fair to the BBC, their Question and Answer article on the conflict is fairly thorough, but why go to a Q & A when you feel you have a fair impression from the headline article? Except that you don't have a fair impression, and even in the Q & A, what's clear is that the BBC doesn't want you to associate Islam with the Darfur conflict. The merest possibility of a link to Islam is ignored. It's strictly racial.


What the BBC omits to mention is that in Darfur, as formerly elsewhere in the Sudan, 'non-Muslim Africans are being driven from their homes there in a systematic way.'(AllAfrica.com). Moreover, Charles Snyder of the US Government opined recently that they are just 'largely' Arab militia. That would mean that the tribal quality that the BBC ascribes them is questionable, with obvious implications when the BBC tries a naturalised explanation of the situation by saying

'The Janjaweed are pastoral and they have been hard hit by desertification, which has greatly diminished water resources and pasture in Darfur.', and their objective is 'to drive the African tribesmen from their homes and force them to abandon valuable water points and pasture. '

You don't realise unless you read the Q & A that the Jingaweit are not a tribe, but a anti-rebel militia formed by the Sudanese Government. It's hardly consistent with 'aerial bombardment' to suppose that this is just another traditional tribal conflict, but the sentence 'The Jangaweed are pastoral' certainly implies it. However, it's well known that Islam is spreading down from Northern Africa- and that is the background to the Sudanese wars of the last twenty years. In Kenya (where several years ago I happened to live), which borders both Sudan and Somalia, Somalian refugees in Nairobi who became converts to Christianity were sought out by armed gangs of Somali Muslims- and shot. I knew people in fear of their lives. That's not to mention Islamic terrorism: the 1998 bombing of the US embassy, which killed nearly 200 mainly Kenyan people, or the more recent hotel bombing near Mombassa (centre of Islam on the East coast of Africa). What's bizarre is that the BBC's article or their Q & A on Darfur do not once use any of the words 'Islam', 'Muslim' or 'non-Muslim'.


The BBC in this article would like to pretend the Jingaweit are an isolated problem, and, oddly enough, so would the Sudanese government. Charles Snyder, however, says at a US Senate subcommitee meeting that

'We have rejected the government's claim that, while it may have originally supported the Jingaweit, they are now out of its control. These militias are proxies for the government and Khartoum bears responsibility for their conduct, whether they say they have control or not.'

This rather undercuts the BBC account, which explains disingenuously that 'The government has been at pains to disassociate itself from the Janjaweed. It has described the Janjaweed as a gang of criminals.' In other words, it has tried hard to counter the impression of its involvement, assuming it is just an impression. Otherwise, why would it require 'pains' to disassociate? No more guns, no more food, no more air support etc doesn't sound too arduous. Unless the BBC inform us of this real involvement, we are left with the merely notional 'association' (something it requires the Q & A to correct). Not that we have much to go on about the government of Sudan, for its full title of 'National Islamic Front (NLF) Government of Sudan' is not used by the BBC in this article or the Q & A. The BBC is mistaking its role. It should not require us to become experts in reading its materials, sifting report after report to put the jigsaw together. It should inform us of the brute facts.


One other fact worth mentioning: according to the sub-commitee meeting, 'The United Nations now claims that over a million civilians are internally displaced in Darfur, with an estimated 110,000 fleeing to Chad.' According to the BBC 'More than 100,000 refugees have fled western Sudan's Darfur region'. This gives you an indication of the BBC's approach to the Darfur crisis. Postscript: Since I drafted the above, a fresh BBC article has emerged reporting on a ceasefire agreement in the Darfur region. Here they give a fair account of the refugee displacement, but obviously this is tempered by the positive news of the ceasefire. Whether this ceasefire is genuine remains to be seen. What is sure is that the basic facts of the region are juggled around through the BBC's coverage in a way which undermines a potential outcry against the Islamic government in Khartoum and against the undoubted strain of Islam that advocates conflict to spread its creed.

Wisdom and Witlessness. Few British people or even Americans take time to stop and think through the problems faced by Israel. Yes, (Anglo/American) Jewish writers speak out for Israel, but where is the Israelis' Jenny Tonge? Of course, Israel wouldn't want Jenny Tonge if they were offered her, and I don't blame them, but still the point remains. The BBC has screeched on about the building of the wall (through head screecher Orla Guerin) and was just as loud about the extra-judicial killing of Sheikh Yassin. In the light of these things, and the troubles of Ariel Sharon which have been widely reported, I took some time to read this Jerusalem Post article on the art of Sharon's government. It's fascinating, and, unusually for journalism, it's grown up. Many good quotes, but here's a taster:

'balance is determined by an endless dynamic of mutual relations, where everyone has something to say but no one can dictate the solution.'

Going Slow. It being Good Friday an' all, I've been relaxing, and any web stuff is purely recreational. A good time then, to wind down with DumbJon as he winds up the BBC. He's been following the BBC's 'What if?' programmes, which have clearly been entertaining romps down the BBC's wilder neural pathways. This particular programme was about obesity, or 'the growing epidemic of obesity' to give it its formal BBC title. Needless to say, to fill an hour of air-time on a very simple topic required major Government intervention. Indeed,

'government had to intervene because - and here I quote directly from one talking head - 'the slaughter cannot go on'. It says a lot about where the Beeb is at right now that even this didn't trigger the BS warning.'

Seems they still don't realise why they are mockingly referred to as 'Aunty'.

Bias at the Telegraph. See, it's that Andrew Marr- he must have spread the lurgi. Seriously though, I've been anxious about the Telegraph for a long while. I anticipate a certain kind of partisanship, which is still visible in spades on occasions- but the partisanship used to be modest yet consistent. Now the Telegraph swings wildly about, with moods ranging from Daily Mailesque to Touchy-Indy. Sarah Sands , Deputy Editor, today gave an interesting insight into the the DT's current shallow waters:

'The audience of Friday’s Any Questions applauded the panel member who accused the media of whipping up anti-Muslim feeling. Earlier, I had looked at a photograph of Muslims burning the Union flag. It was striking and horrible. But these were 20 people performing for the television cameras among a peaceful crowd of 2,000. I decided against using it on the front page of Saturday’s paper. The News International papers did; the Sun’s headline was “Hate Britain“. The media can sometimes be accurate without being wholly truthful.'

Yes; and sometimes they can be inaccurate and untruthful. While Sands commends her newspaper for political correctness, Michael Morris has these observations from The American Thinker, reflecting on yesterday's reporting of the bomb which hit the wall of a Mosque compound in Fallujah:

'The supposed bombing of the al-Kubaysi Mosque in Fallujah has been misreported with unabashed vigor....The London Times and the Daily Telegraph have also hopped onto the bandwagon of unadulterated media slime...The Thursday morning Daily Telegraph print headline for the same story was:“US aircraft in deadly attack on mosque”. Good going guys: let’s see how many suicide bombers you can activate with your misleading headline.'

Seems like Ms Sands hadn't got her thinking cap on over that one, or something. (btw, in case you wondered, the BBC is not mentioned favourably in despatches by Morris either- read the whole thing).

Death of the American Way? Kim Ghattas of the BBC is somewhat presumptive when she says:

'The growing unrest in Iraq is a source of worry for all Arab countries, but in Damascus there is also some satisfaction at the failure of the American experiment in bringing democracy to the Arab world. '

Well, it's good to know that Arab countries watch out for their neighbours. How much less concerning it must have been for them when Saddam was killing his own people in their tens of thousands.


She also seems a bit lazy, not to say complicit with the status quo in Syria, when she says:

But one year on, if there is anything that Syrians and their government agree about, it is that the American way is not the way to bring about change.

Especially when, without mentioning the continuing detainment of Syrian Kurds, virtually as a footnote to a long article, she adds:

Last month, Kurds in Syria rioted after several were shot by police during a football match. In the following days, more clashes took place and statues of the late president Assad were defaced in the Kurdish areas in the north-east of Syria.

Which all in all amounts to:

1) The Syrians don't want anything to do with America.

2) The Syrians are generally not very unhappy with their boy Assad, and his dictatorial ways.

3) The Kurds don't (as usual) count, as a group or as Syrians.

Why Uncover News when you can use the old stuff? The BBC seems to be stuck in the glory years of the 1980's when they reported on seals being killed, on the Amazon basin under threat, and on Aborigines campaigning for their birth rights. That's why they're reporting seals being killed, the Amazon basin under threat, and Aborigines campaigning for their birth rights.


I suppose each issue deserves a separate hearing, but I am sure these represent a small fraction of the environmental and human issues that are ongoing at the moment. For one example, an unexamined factoid that emerged from a BBC report on Rwanda was that 20, 000 Rwandan genocide suspects were released from prison last year. They had faced no trial, and we do not know how many innocent men may have been locked up for years without trial, or how many murderers have been released serving less than ten years. Big issue, I'd have thought; current news I'd have thought; but nothing about it except the factoid. Yet here we have either bleeding hearts (over seal culls), a complex developmental argument (the Amazon) or the neverending industry of grievances that the Aborigines make out of their secret store of grievances- all reduced to advertising for protest movements. Get a life, BBC. Investigate today's news. Do something to surprise me.

Thoughtful and Informative writing from the BBC- if a little stuffily stuck in an old fashioned anglo-centric perspective. I apologise if I'm a bit one-track at the moment, and I don't believe we need to be fixated on every twist and turn from Iraq (see Mark Steyn below) , but obviously it's not overstating to say this is a crucial period in the coalition's efforts there. It'd be nice to make merry at the BBC's expense, and there were at least half a dozen stories that bore the heavy imprint of their bias today- but I find myself linking to a good one.

More exceptionally informative writing from Zeyad in Baghdad. Not only informative: moving too. Having been amongst my international favourites for a long while, he's now finally in my links as well.

A Revolt? Yes, but in Ramadi, by opportunistic Baathists. That's the likely scenario behind the deaths of twelve US marines. The BBC just calls them 'Iraqi insurgents', and states that Ramadi is part of the 'Sunni Triangle', whereas CNN makes clear the belief that they are part of the Baathist remnants. I guarantee that most British people will not realise that there is not a unified 'Iraqi revolt' but two quite different problems- the Baathists killing more US soldiers (marines, no less) in one engagement than Al-Sadr's revolt has claimed in several days. Al Sadr, meanwhile, calls for a general strike among Iraqis. Sounds almost like he's trying to climb back into the political discourse. On the subject of Al-Sadr- CNN makes clear he is wanted on murder charges; the BBC says his arrest has been ordered on charges 'unrelated to the current violence'. In fact Al-Sadr is suspected of the murder of one of his rivals: that's the kind of spiritual leader he is.