Marxist is sickened by journalists’ ‘craven obfuscation’ of Iraq’s democratization

Marxist S.D. Liddick can’t believe some of the schlock that “news reporters” are writing to fit the preconceived narrative that anything happening in Iraq is evil because America is involved and America is evil. 

Liddick’s column in The Huffington Post is addressed to a reporter named Dahr Jamail, who just filed a hit piece about an Iraqi leader trying to build a better life for Iraqis in Fallujah:

I just read your piece about Sheik Aifan Sadun, the “Teflon Don” of Fallujah. I’ve researched similar figures, in Haditha, Bagdadi, Hit and Al Qaim, and I saw many of the same things you did. But I’ve come to very different conclusions. That, I believe, is because you had a pre-existing agenda you were determined to conform evidence to (i.e., war is bad, the U.S. is waging a war, so whatever it’s doing in Anbar is bad); and because you’re a coward.

The U.S. is an empire and the Iraq debacle is evidence of 21st century imperialism, no doubt. I still don’t think we should be here. But that debate became passé six years ago. Now it’s a question of how soon the U.S. gets out and what happens before and after it does. I’ve met too many good and decent people here to write this place off, smart and hard working Iraqis that want and deserve a first-world existence. …

I’m phobically allergic to the conservative Republican types the military is rife with, but I’ve only been in country four months and already I hate liberals. There’s plenty of ugliness to report in Iraq (as there are thousands of stories of hope and headway)--and the U.S. military certainly isn't beyond reproach. Nobody’s telling you to report on one side or the other. But manipulating the truth because of your own personal biases is wretched and works in the face of progress. The other end of the political spectrum disregards you, Dahr, and now I know why. I thought it was because you’re a liar--but you aren’t. You don’t have enough backbone to be a liar. You’re a craven obfuscationist, intent on promoting your agenda at the cost of a menagerie of much braver men and women.

Pseudo-liberals. The people Liddick hates aren’t liberals. They’re pseudo-liberals who pretend to care about human rights and freedom, but who relentlessly oppose any action that would defend the defenseless or free the oppressed.

They’re tyranny’s enablers in faux-liberal clothing.

Frank Warner

Comments

[jj mollo]

The problem is people who think they know better than the rest of us. They're willing to lie and obfuscate because they know what's good for us. I often think about Walter Duranty in this regard.