There’s no doubt that US public opinion has shifted towards favoring military strikes against Islamic State fighters. A key element is the idea that the country could be attacked by the group.
Where do people get this idea? TV news might be one place. The September 10 broadcast of ABC World News offered one of the most unbelievable examples.
Anchor David Muir, reminding viewers that it was “the eve of 9/11,” explained:
A new alert here. The head of Homeland Security and New York City’s police commissioner now warning the risk of a terror attack is at its highest in years.
He went to note that there was “no specific plot,” but then told viewers that “the rise of ISIS and all of their messages through social media raising the level of concern.”
He turned to correspondent Pierre Thomas, who explained that “sources tell me that on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary, we are in a high tempo moment” and that “ISIS has set in motion a new dynamic.” Next up was a clip of New York City police commissioner Bill Bratton, saying the group poses a threat that is “probably even more potentially impactful on us than Al-Qaeda.”
Thomas follows up:
Also today, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said that ISIS had the most sophisticated social media and Internet messaging system ever designed by a terrorist organization. That means it can reach people directly in the US and encourage them to attack. A dangerous moment, David.
So there is a heightened threat of a terrorist attack, absent any specifics, which may or may not have something to do with a violent cult located in Syria and Iraq. They pose a threat because of their technological sophistication–which seems to be built around their ability to put videos on the Internet, which perhaps someone in the US might see and take as a sign to attack. (Note that the ability to “reach people directly in the the US and encourage them to attack” long predates the Internet; trans-Atlantic direct dialing was inaugurated in 1951.)
Of course, it is entirely possible that there is some genuine threat here. But what there isn’t is actual evidence of such a threat presented by ABC News. Vague terror warnings from government officials should be challenged, not merely amplified. ABC‘s report doesn’t tell us much about what the threat might be; what it does do exceptionally well is scare millions of viewers.
” “ABC’s report doesn’t tell us much about what the threat might be; what it does do exceptionally well is scare millions of viewers.” ”
And it’s doing exactly what the Corporate Lords and Masters Want; They are itching to spend their Billions in Profits to kill the Serfs and Slaves who are not falling in line with their Ideal, i.e. that they are the New Gods and must be obeyed.
But you can’t do that if the Population doesn’t feel threatened. So you have to whip a ‘terror’ to “terrorize” the people so they will do more damage to themselves, which can then start the downward spiral of ‘Fear’, ‘Action’, ‘Damage to ourselves’. Repeat.
Thank you Molly Ivans for this tale.
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Johnny used to tell a story about when he was a Texas Ranger, a captain in fact. He was seven at the time. His friend Boots Cooper, who was six, was sheriff, and the two of them used to do a lot of heavy law enforcement out behind the Faulk place in south Austin. One day Johnny’s mama, having two such fine officers on the place, asked them to go down to the hen house and rout out the chicken snake that had been doing some damage there.
Johnny and Boots loped down to the hen house on their trusty brooms (which they tethered outside) and commenced to search for the snake. They went all through the nests on the bottom shelf of the hen house and couldn’t find it, so the both of them stood on tippy-toes to look on the top shelf. I myself have never been nose-to-nose with a chicken snake, but I always took Johnny’s word for it that it will just scare the living shit out of you. Scared those boys so bad that they both tried to exit the hen house at the same time, doing considerable damage to both themselves and the door.
Johnny’s mama, Miz Faulk, was a kindly lady, but watching all this, it struck her funny. She was still laughin’ when the captain and the sheriff trailed back up to the front porch. “Boys, boys, ” said Miz Faulk, “what is wrong with you? You know perfectly well a chicken snake cannot hurt you.”
That’s when Boots Cooper made his semi-immortal observation. “Yes ma’am,” he said, “but there’s some things’ll scare you so bad, you hurt yourself.”
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Think of a Chicken snake in the hen house of humanity: forever. That is what we have with the likes of CBS
Well, I don’t like Islamic culture, for women, for gays, for regular people, for anyone. I think it has to reform or be overthrown, but I am not sure how that gets done in our age. It’s so uncool and politically incorrect to not live and live, to acknowledge or even notice that there are some unacceptable cultures and governments in the world.
I think back the entirely fabricated story about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait which was real enough, but there were false stories about atrocities towards babies in incubators and other things that were proved to be false after they were accepted and acted on.
So, our government and news outlets must face a new standard of evidence, but I think we also have to face that the fact that the way things are now the government and news work together, as they did in WWII, and even Viet Nam for a while.
Governmental mistakes when it comes to using military force were more expensive and disastrous back when. They are less expensive in terms of deaths, and now we have drones … but we have no clear idea what they are doing as we did in WWII, and how they are doing it, and whether they can stop or not, and why. Are our corporations doing this out of some American mission, or does it just extort lots of from the taxpayers?
I think we before the US moves forward, if it ever does again, it needs to make and accept a compromise that a certain amount of resources are going to go towards “empire” if you want to call it that, and a certain amount of resources are going to go for social programs. What we need is a commitment from both sides to that, and a way to continually improve the performances of the government AND industry.
Are we that naïve to overthrow the Syrian president, Assad, in place of some group that may one day go against us or be just as inept as the Iraqi government is?
I thought I never come to this conclusion: We should back President Assad and forget the weak and unknown group we have no idea who they really are.
And if we don’t, maybe the Russians ought to step in and arm Assad in order to save ourselves from being bog down on another war for another 10 to 20 years.
Why not let the Russians help Assad?