Losers.

not one Arab leader has won a serious conflict for about 1,000 years.

Even the much vaunted Saladin was a KURD!

That being said, our press may have its problems, but its skepticism of authority is something the Arab press hould learn.

They're lining up for the Stewart Smally show.

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggonit, people like me!"

I always wandered if the Arab media is just incompetent, or if they simply consider their readership to be "the street of idiots"? Either way, a no-win proposition for the Arabs.

In the words of Alan, "Whoaaa, ha ha ha ha ha." that is ripe.

That's not fair either. The Iraqis have put up a hell of a fight - they're completely outclassed in training, equipment, and leadership, but they've fought valiantly (the regulars, not the terrorists).

They've done a lot better than the French did in WWII and the French had the ADVANTAGE in equipment.

Orion

The arab press gives its viewers what it wants to hear. Its a cultural thing.

The Arab media generally is incompetant and pandering.

It's important to understand that in no country can an Arab newspaper seriously criticize its own government. The government runs and funds most of the media. Governments also use the media to deflect criticism outward. It's always the Jews fault or the Americans fault...You aren't going to see much self-criticism.

But, like all media, the Arab media wants to please its audience. That audience wants to hear good news about "their guys" just like we do and bad stuff about about the other side. So they pander to that, and of course, they also contribute to the perception that the US is doing terrible things. It feeds on itself.

Trouble is, reality will crash down on all of this. The US will win. The Iraqis will be HAPPY that we won.

The average Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, etc. is going to pick up on this. They will realize they were lied too. This did happen after 1967 and its about to happen again.

Give it a little time, the Arab media got caught in its own biases and desire to pander, rather than report.

They'll have about as much credibility as the governments that run them will have when this is over.

"Why is he letting the Arabs down now," a Lebanese caller asked a phone-in programme, "when his forces fought so bravely in the south of the country?"

It's so sad that so many people are unwilling to admit to themselves that Saddam and many others couldn't care less about the Arab people.
*sigh*

The US is starting a satelite Arabic TV network in the middle east. It will just take a crisis or two where the US is giving good information and the local press is putting out garbage for most intellectuals and opinion leaders to start trusting the US station.

I am glad that they are trying to meet the problem head on.

The Iraqis have fought hard. No doubt about that.

The issue that I have is a concern that the Arab world really does suffer from a self-esteem problem. Every damned thing is a "jihad" for them. They are constantly looking for something to be proud of.

Al-Jazeera ain't it. They are full of the same rediculous lies as the tyrants who lead these poor people.

A truly free Iraq will not bend down and kiss American tush - expect them to say things we don't agree with. Expect them, however, to be a free, peaceful, and incredibly productive society. Anything less and we've failed.

But their success is the honor that the Arab world needs. I've said it before - when Baghdad falls, Bush needs a speech where he indicates that the coalition troops won the battles, but the Iraqi people have won this war.

Phred,

I think you're right. I also think that the Arab media would do well to focus on the heroism of the average Iraqi soldier - fighting for a lost, mistaken cause, but fighting with courage nonetheless.

If they'd get Saddam's member out of their mouth long enough they could report on the fact that there were a number of Iraqis forced to sacrifice themselves for their family - and did to save innocent lives.

They need to start focusing on reality rather than these insane hopes that Allah is somehow going to overthrow the US.

Orion

Perhaps the Iraqi's will be stringing up Peter Arnett before Saddam.

I have no more regard for an Iraqi soldier 'fighting bravely' for his cause than I do for an soldier of the SS Leibstandarte fighting in France in 1944. Every time I read a report of a bunch of them getting blown to pieces my heart gets a little lighter.

Orion,
You are right. French Col. A. Goutard wrote (The Battle of France, 1940) that "The Germans had no advantage in numbers over the total array of opposing divisions in the West... The French had as many tanks, and more powerful tanks..."

British historian B.H. Liddell Hart wrote (The Rommel papers) that "Instead of having an overwhelming superiority in numbers, as was imagined, the German armies were not able to muster as many as their opponants did. The offensive was launched with 136 divisions, and was faced by the equivalent of 156 - French, British, Belgian and Dutch. It was only in aircraft that the Germans had a big superiority, in numbers and quality. Their tanks were fewer than those on the other side - barely 2,800 against more than 4,000. They were also, on the average, inferior in armor and armament, although slightly superion in speed."

In the frontleaf to William Shirer's "The Collapse of the Third Republic" we read "the French army, with the British and the Belgians, was not out-numbered by the Germans; much of its armament was superior to what the Nazis had; the French Air Force had more first-line planes at the end of the Battle of France than at its beginning. But behind the battle itself (Shirer) has patiently studied the growing confusion, helplessness and cynicism of the people, the ineptness of their leaders and generals, the old and curious corruptions which had sapped the strength and the toughness of a great nation."

I wonder what Shirer would make of the newer but no less curious corruptions of France, and those of its leader.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the ENTIRE ARAB WORLD is built on a lies, fraud, shams, hypocrisy, and unadulterated hubris and willful ignorance of reality?

These people, their nations, their leaders and their media all work endlessly to propagate a picture, an idea of the muslim world that is so totally devoid of the dismal, grim reality of their actual existences, that when it finally dawns on them how utterly shitty their situation is, they go into a massively depressed, borderline suicidal state.

At this point they then proceed to blame all their "humiliations" on the Jews and America, instead of taking one ounce of responsibility for their condition.

I think it's the worst thing I've ever seen.

Can anyone save anyone from themselves?

Your friendly coalition troops, de-bugging the Mideast one buggered-up sinkhole at a time.

MITYDK: everyone will hate me for saying this, but that's just what we're doing.

We're also stopping terrorism the only way possible, and that's WHY we're doing it.