Absinthe & Cookies (a bit bitter, a bit sweet)

The Glass

Last night, I switched to CNN for awhile to see what they were up to. It only takes a few minutes watching to remind me why I don't watch CNN. First off, Aaron Brown is like nails down a chalkboard for me, but I kept it on anyway. Then he starts interviewing a guy from Newsweek. You know, with "mainstream media", the glass isn't half empty, it shattered in a million pieces on the floor. So, Aaron asks the Newsweek guy if he's less pessimistic than he was when they talked at the beginning of the war. Here's the highlights before I turned the channel in sheer frustration.

)) Americans see victory while the rest of the world is seeing the victims as civilian casualties mount.

)) Dropping bombs for no good reason on civilians (talking about the bombing where they thought Saddam was)

)) Enraging the "Arab Street"

)) That while there were many Coalition troops in the desert and on the outskirts of cities, we didn't have any control over the Iraqi people (and he intimated we never would and that failure was just around the corner)

There were a couple other things, but my near sleepy state drove them from my mind. But you get the idea.

I got to thinking though, since obviously the world press is portraying us as evil people who only want to massacre civilians, and are showing all sorts of horrible things and blaming it on us, then I wonder how much of an impact what happened yesterday will really have? Civilians were killed in an attempt to save more lives by killing Saddam. But since the rest of the world, especially the Arab world, already think we're slaughtering civilians, then this was just one more of the same. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. For many in "Old Europe", for those in the "Arab Street", and people like Aaaron Brown, and the Newsweek guy, the glass will always be broken. We can't even get it to half empty in their eyes. So if we can't do anything about it, we need to just follow the dictates of our own conscience and leave the rest to sort themselves out before whatever deity/belief system they may have once the dust has settled.

I'm not sure any of that last made sense, though it made sense in my brain when I thought about it!

For what it's worth....

Posted by Ithildin at April 8, 2003 5:45 PM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE