days pass by and still there's no gulf war 2, tho many claim it's coming within a few days. but we have this little fierce war: american media vs. 'the old europe', especially the french. maybe i live in a diffrent reality, but i find it still interesting - what does it mean? why? (written after reading some texts from ny post for the course 'the right to know: military, politics and governemnt in america from world war ii to today')
back in 2001 the american media were not exactly what we could call pro-governmental. george w. bush wasn't praised much. then the terrorists blow the wtc up and republicans were the good guys. i believe the twins tragedy was a horrible act that moved hearts of people all around the world. but in effect, the us government used it as a weapon against their own citizens and their civil rights. in a normal situation, many would protest, but in the atmosphere of a tragedy and the so called war against the terrorism, public meaning once again strengthens the authorities in whatever they do. where have all the hippies gone? where are the pacifists, where's this generation? they turned into a solid middle class... the young people don't care about the politics at all: they don't have to join the army, they won't be killed in another vietnam - we have the television war you can watch all day long, sitting comfortably at home eating popcorn. thousands of killed iraqi civilians? who cares. you won't see them either, and most of the american population is sure that the war will help the ordinary people (maybe - at least those who won't be killed - one could add). the media shouldn't inform too much about the background of the situation: nobody wants to hear that it was the cia and american companies that were supporting (at that time) our secret ally with anthrax and many other extremly dangerous chemical and biological weapons. and that for example d. rumsfeld was personally engaged in these operations.
thus it's better to focus on something else, funny if possible. and who's more funny than the frog-eaters? there are many perfect jokes about them, they act silly, their boss is comic and hey - we know the history, right? without us they would be lost a thousand times.
is it normal for a democratic country to speak about an ally with a different opinion as of an idiot? ('that must be an idiot or a french.')
why do the american media act like this? i have friends that would claim it's because the american media are but an obediant servant of the evil ruling class which is full of militaristic, selfish oil magnates and weaponry moguls and their followers. i wouldn't say so and i don't believe in any kind of world conspirations - it's often just the human stupidity. and in this case media imho behave in the way we see because there's a public call for it: it's the american view on the world - common people are sure that if there is something wrong, it's not with america - we are the best, and the rest? weird countries with difficult names. odd people that even aren't able to speak english. i know: there are many thousands of very intelligent and educated americans that don't fit in the scheme at all. but overally - ordinary americans are taught to feel very self-important, tho there's no profound reason for it...
this is just my personal opinion and i don't want to be seen as an anti-americanist. but where's the republican spirit of the usa? are noam chomsky and gore vidal right? i'm afraid so.

          adamm