AWOL in the war of ideas
- From: "NZDude" <nzdude@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:34:47 +1300
AWOL in the War of Ideas
By Clifford D. May
Scripps Howard News Service
January 26, 2006
AWOL in the War of Ideas It is one thing to tell the truth even when it
damages your friends. It's another to tell untruths in order not to offend
your enemies. It's one thing to give the devil his due. It's another to do
the devil's public relations.
How else to explain a dispatch from the Associated Press referring to Osama
bin Laden as "an exiled Saudi dissident"? Such spin may not be inaccurate
but it's like calling Jeffery Dahmer an "eccentric gourmet." It rather
misses the point, don't you think?
Similarly, a recent report on National Public Radio discussed how dangerous
Iraq is for journalists. The blame was placed on "the nature of this war"
and "the security situation." No criticism of Militant Islamist cut-throats
and car bombers was voiced.
And, of course, Reuters, the British wire service, has decreed that "one
man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." In Reuters corporate
eyes, even the attacks on the World Trade Center can not be called
terrorism.
Such relativism is common in academia as well as in journalism. The other
day, on a BBC radio show, I debated Dr. Hooshang Amirahmadi, a professor
from Rutgers University. His argument: The way to settle the conflict with
Iran is for the U.S. to re-open full diplomatic relations. If President Bush
would only reach out to the regime in Tehran, he'd find there have been
misunderstandings, that both sides have made mistakes, and that there is
ample room for compromise.
In response, I began to read verbatim quotes form Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and other Iranian rulers about their lethal intentions toward
the U.S., their genocidal plans for Israel, their hostility toward
"Anglo-Saxon civilization."
Professor Amirahmadi objected that scholars and journalists must not take
such remarks seriously. He suggested it was either unsophisticated or unfair
of me (maybe both) to repeat such statements on the air.
It's tempting to dismiss such attitudes as simply the foolishness of the
chattering classes. But the West is in the middle of a World War of Ideas --
a conflict as consequential as the war of arms. For intellectuals to retreat
to a Switzerland-of-the-mind will have consequences. And their declaration
of neutrality comes at a time when the enemies of the Free World are
bringing out the big guns.
Take, for example, al-Manar, an elaborate Lebanon-based satellite television
station owned by Hezbollah (the terrorist organization second only to
al-Qaeda in number of Americans it has killed) and financed by the Militant
Islamists of Iran. Every day, al-Manar blatantly incites terrorism against
Americans, Israelis and Jews.
As one al-Manar official was candid enough to tell terrorism expert Avi
Jorisch, the station attempts to "help people on the way to commit what you
in the West call a suicide mission."
A concerted effort by the Coalition Against Terrorist Media (CATM), an
association of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and secular groups, working in
partnership with the U.S. and European governments, has succeeded in
removing al-Manar from eight satellite providers -- ending its broadcasting
to North America, South America, Asia, Australia and parts of Africa, all
regions where Hezbollah terror cells are known to have a strong presence.
But two satellite providers continue to broadcast al-Manar to Europe and
throughout much of the Middle East and North Africa. One is owned by the
Egyptian government -- the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. aid. A
second satellite company has as its largest shareholder the Saudi
government -- which spends millions of dollars to run television ads in the
U.S. proclaiming itself America's "ally against terrorism."
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group backed by Iran, also is launching its
own television station, one that is meant eventually to reach target
audiences around the globe. And Qatar-based al-Jazeera - moderate by
contrast to al-Manar but always the first to broadcast al-Qaeda's messages -
is now employing such media stars as Dave Marash, until recently a regular
on ABC News' Nightline, and the veteran British journalist, David Frost.
Marash and Frost are lending their credibility to the cause of Militant
Islamism - whether they admit that or not, whether they understand that or
not.
"If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that
of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as
the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'"
It wasn't George Bush who said that. It was George Orwell.
------
Clifford D. May, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, is the
president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies a policy
institute focusing on terrorism.
--
"You sleep safe in your beds because rough men stand ready in the night to
visit violence on those who would do you harm."
- George Orwell
--------------
"All those who study jihad will understand why Islam wants to conquer the
world . . . Those who know nothing about Islam pretend that Islam counsels
against war. [They] are witless!"
- Ayatollah Khomeini
--------------
Go Niners, Go Giants, Go Canterbury, Go All-Blacks
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