Killing the messenger

Submitted by Michael (United States), Jul 9, 2008 at 09:42

Salaam-- Again, I must remind you that there is a wide gap between threat and deed. Islamist extremists have promised death to Danish cartoonists. Yet no Danes have died. For that matter it has been many years since the fatwa was proclaimed against Salman Rushdie. Yet he is still with us.

In contrast, US forces steadfastly maintain they NEVER aim at noncombatants. Yet we find numerous instances where they have killed journalists at close range in Iraq, where presumably they know who they are shooting at. In this instance, they fired point blank at the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad, known to be occupied by the press almost exclusively, and took out two floors.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/baghdadreporters_04-08-03.html So what is worse? To make empty threats? Or to kill without compunction or warning? Check the Journalists Without Borders website to find a comprehensive listing of such incidents. You'll find more occasions, I would assert, than chance would dictate. Also: do you think it is forbidden to publish statements made by Osama? That would put us in the position of having to blindly accept that he must be evil because our leaders are telling us so, rather than allowing us to judge for ourselves by his actual words. No citizen should be asked to trust his leaders to such a degree. Al Jazeera is a news outlet, sponsored by the not-so-radical government of Qatar. I think statements made by this prominent personality are newsworthy. I also believe they publish statements made from time to time by the Bush Administration or by the US military. By your logic, does this make them also the "publicity wing" of the United States?

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