Why I Won’t Vote for Alan Weh

clipped from www.cfr.org Republican National Convention: Council on Foreign Relations Foreign Policy Discussion August 31, 2004 Council on Foreign Relations QUESTIONER: I’m Alan Weh, from New Mexico. I want to address the question asked by The Wall Street Journal did the war in Iraq create more terrorists? If one understands what’s going on in Iraq, you’ll understand that the war in Iraq, if anything, is reducing the number of terrorists. The real terrorists that are there are there because it’s a target-rich environment for them. You’ve got a lot of people like us that you can take an easy shot at. It’s not quite as easy over here. But the fact is that our presence there— and oh, by the way, we have a shameful scandal in the prison incident. But that’s just a breakdown in military discipline. And if you look at it too close, you’ll read more into it. But that’s all it is. the fact that we treated it so openly— would the other side, would the Muslim world treat it so openly?

I know a lot has materialized since 2004, but I don’t think this would change Alan’s agenda. We should not occupy countries and expect there to be no blow back anymore than thinking we would welcome China to set up military camp in our neighborhood. And I don’t want to pay $1 billion a week supporting it. And infinitely more important is the cost of lives. Anybody remember what the total loss of life has been for them and for us? Yeah, not something we like to think about huh? So easy, so convenient, so wrong. God have mercy on us.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites–oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others–work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict