Religion of Peace Redux. This is OK because we expect it?

Published on May 23, 2004 By greywar In Current Events

I guess the media don't feel too bad about the 18 civilians killed here because the US didn't do the killing. Therein lies the rub. Our culture is held to a far higher standard because people expect us to be decent! Since no one expects it of these sorts of cultures (read Islamic extremists) then their atrocities go by the by. Will we see Newsweek giving this the coverage they gave the wedding party incident or the horrifying Israeli incident of last week? Honestly I doubt it will get a mention at all.

"Thirty-two people were killed in a landmine explosion triggered by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen at Lower Munda on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Sunday. PTI said 15 of the dead were BSF personnel and the rest were their relatives.

The incident occurred at 10.15 a.m. when a BSF bus, which was part of a Jammu-bound convoy, hit a landmine planted under a culvert at Wudsa near Lower Munda, 100 km south of Srinagar. The bus, which was carrying BSF personnel and their relatives, caught fire after the explosion as its fuel tank exploded.

Most of the victims were charred beyond recognition."

Credit: Hindustan Times and LGF

Comments

Gerry Atrick

on May 23, 2004

greywar,
I think it probably falls into the same category as natural disasters. Here in Australia, if 100 people die in floods in the US or Britain it is front page news. If 100 people die in Botswana or Baghladesh you'll be lucky to find anything on it.
Atrocities are happening all over the world, but how many do we hear of?

greywar

on May 23, 2004

Thats a good point Gerry but I think there is a bit more to it than that. This is not simply ignorance due to remoteness, it is *willful* ignorance by journalists who do not want to report on anything that doesn't support their worldview or politics.

Gerry Atrick

on May 23, 2004

greywar,
we may end up in the old chicken and egg situation here.....do journalists (and we really mean editors and sometimes owners) control what the public thinks or do the public control what the journalists report...I have yet to work out the answer.....

Arquonzo

on May 23, 2004

Hopefully neither. The journalists report what they want, and eventually the public discovers the truth anyhow.

kingbee

on May 24, 2004

im not able to determine where this happened. kashmir?

Draginol

on May 24, 2004

That is one of the reasons I suspect the middle east is still so violent. The rest of the world has tacitly decided that they're not real "grown ups" yet and ignores this kind of thing as things to be expected.

Houseofstone

on May 24, 2004

I think Grey hit it on the head, but we've brought it on ourselves. We've set ourselves up not so much as the world police, but as the world action-movie stars, righting wrongs and rescuing fair damsels and puppies and the french and stuff. The world expects a higher standard of us because we, generally speaking, perform to one. It probably is arrogant of us as a nation to cruise around toppling (sp?) established regimes and setting up western style democracies which they may or may not want, telling them the whole time it's better because that's the way we do it. World press loves to point out our screw-ups, but the malicious action of others doesn't get as much air-time. Those responsible for this double standard in the media may feel it's just them keeping us honest, but I'd like to see the occasional side by side comparison of U.S. screw-ups vs. world atrocities. We are by no stretch a perfect utopia, but I've been to a lot of places on this planet, and the best place to live is far and away the U.S.

greywar

on May 24, 2004

I've been to a lot of places on this planet, and the best place to live is far and away the U.S.

And I never seem to see the US's harshest critics leaving in droves to take up residence in any of those places either....

Houseofstone

on May 24, 2004

They can complain here, but complaining anywhere else isn't healthy. Free press and free speech. Part of what makes us great.

dreamtime iliaster

on May 24, 2004

It's the same reason that hundreds of flu deaths in a city go unreported, and one single West Nile death is front page news; abuse of American prisoners in America isn't news, but abuse of American prisoners in Iraq is; Americans killing Iraqis create outrage, but Russians killing Chechens do not.

For something to become a big story it needs to be unusual and involve Americans directly.

Doubtless. I wonder if that's what Ireland, Japan, Spain, Kuwait, France etc. think of the United States
This board supports []quote, but not []url, as in UBB. What gives?

imajinit

on May 25, 2004

Hopefully neither. The journalists report what they want, and eventually the public discovers the truth anyhow.

only those who actively seek the truth will find it

Gerry Atrick

on May 25, 2004

imajinit,
I agree 100%.....it's hard to know the truth even when we find it though, sometimes we will only know months or years down the track

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