The psychology of the Western elites
Glenn Reynolds has been rounding up coverage of the Canadian anti—terror bust and the media coverage of Haditha, and has found a number of first—rate pieces.(See, i.e. this fisking of the New York Times editorial on Haditha) My favorite Reynold's catch , however, is this comment, printed as posted on Roger L. Simon's blog. I think it a marvel of clear thinking . In fact, it is the best explanation I've seen of Western elites' fear of calling an Islamofascist an Islamofascist and at the same time always assuming our troops are guilty of heinous war crimes:
Just like our own elites: they truly believe that — if not carefully monitored, us People will riot and string up Muslims from every lamp—post at the least provocation. In their view, the Military, especially, is certain to run amuck [sic]at any time (thus the obsessing over Abu Ghraib, and now, jumping all over Haditha) — and, of course, probably has, almost continuously, and Rumsfeld, etc has Covered it Up.
And with Bush in power, the Elites are wringing their hands, knowing that the RedNecks are rampant, uncontrolled, willing and able to do ANYTHING!!!!
Dr. Sanity might note this is probably a good example of the psychological phenonmena—— projection.
Walter Duranty saw first hand real crimes against humanity, covered them up and therefore was complicit in them and received a Pulitzer Prize which the New York Times still proudly displays decades after Duranty was exposed as Stalin's helper.(Michael Ledeen observes the Washington Post's Karl Vick is doing the same thing for Ahmadinejad.)
And we know the press harmed the troops more with their preposterously overblown coverage of Abu Ghraib than Saddam's armed forces ever did. But since it was a way of harming the Administration, they cared not at all.They assume we operate by the same broken moral compass.
We don't, of course.But it's good to know where they're coming from.
Clarice Feldman 6 04 06