This is something that occured to me while I was off forum for awhile.....tell me what you think. I am thinking of researching this a bit.
A few facts...
1) We saw with the Newsweek Gitmo story that false reporting can get people killed (riots in middle east killed at least 7)...this made me look at some prior events in a new light (see below)..
2) Recall Bin Laden's last videotape..Oct last year I think, about a month before the election. OBL first officially stated that he was behind 9/11. I read the transcript and noted something very odd. He gave the time he concieved "jihaad" on the US as summer 1982 because of the "imperialistic 7th fleet and there warmongering in Lebanon"...what was odd for me was that I was there. I was a young air controller aboard the carrier USS Independence - flagship of the 7th fleet, in the summer/fall/winter 1982. We were on a diplomatic mission..UN special envoy Phillip Habib & his staff was shuttling back and forth on helicopters brokering peace between factions in the country. I met the guy. I was watching this on radar and to my knowlege, that was it, a few choppers back and forth, our fighters stayed away...we were not looking to stir up trouble. But not long after we left, they blew up a Marine barricks there killing over 2000. To the best of my knowlege, they were peace keepers..
Point of this is that OBL did NOT talk about Israel, Gulf WarI, Sommolia, Iraq/Iran, or Afganistan..all speculated to be the turning point for him, what I might have suspected. He mention the 7th fleet by name....and unless we were doing covert stuff I did not know about (possible but unlikely as I guided most of the aircraft into Lebanon)..we were on a peace mission. So the question is...exactly WHAT was the world media (BBC, Arab news, NY Times SAYING about our mission)???
3) I give you another example from the same cruise...we were off the coast of Libya, some 25 miles..in international waters but also in Quadaifi's 100 mile "zone of death" as he liked to call it. They sent 6 soviet made SU-22s straight at us & we repelled them with F-14s..including a brief flight into Libyan airspace chacing them back. No shots fired. My parents saved the newsclipping of the incident & I was suprized to see that it had US basically made out to be the aggresser in the story, no mention that they flew at us first. I told my dad "thats not right!, they launched on us first"...his reply was "that is why I do not believe everything you read"..my first lesson.
So anyway....this is NOT a political attack but rather a concern that just MAYBE, the "global" (not limited to US) media somehow distorted our mission just like with what happened in Libya. And it somehow tipped OBL against us. And maybe other cumulative distortions of our actions by the media over decades have added fuel to he and other jihaddists. Because while we have not been perfect as a country, nor have we been what I think we are percieved as by many..even our own citazens. I have become increasingly aware of media distortion..for a variety of reasons.
Could it be that the MEDIA is as/or more responsible for anti-US sentiment than any of our actions? Even responsible for 9/11 to some degree? I do not know, but I am concerned.
