LOL you funny guy

Don't forget the DRRD - Department of Redundancy Reduction Department.

We will not hear much about the body count in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is fecking dangerous. Journalists like reporting from dangerous places, but they like doing so while being completely safe. The ideal dangerous place is one under attack by Israel or the US because they rarely hurt journalists.

Afghanistan is a mountainous desert with few villages, terrible streets, no working mobile phone network, and all-in-all terrible living conditions.

Iraq is pretty much a place like the US or Europe. You have hotels, running cold and hot water, an excellent mobile phone network (I could speak with Dublin from the middle of the desert), excellent (and existing) streets, and fantastic food.

Reporting from Iraq is much more fun than reporting from Afghanistan. And public opinion is based on what reports the public hear, not what really happens. That is why few people care about Sudan (100,000/year victims) but the media cover daily any conflict between Israel and Gaza (1000/year). Who wants to live in a tent in the desert reporting about the war crimes of those who actually commit them? It's fecking dangerous. Those people kill you if you report that.

Journalists are scum. They make their money with the suffering of other people and they never care if they cause violence by reporting whatever nonsense made the most money at the time. (I have never seen a journalist apologise to Israeli victims of revenge attack because of the made-up Jenin "massacre".) Journalists take pictures of terrorists launching rockets because they think they are somehow exempt from the law that obligates other people (apparently) to report crimes to the authorities or try to stop them, not interview the criminals and make money with their story. But scum is scum.

I doubt that anyone will hear about the terrible situation in Afghanistan, about the terrible conditions for American soldiers, or about anything really bad; because journalists mainly report from places that are safe for journalists and about people who do not take revenge. The more bad news you hear about a place, the safer it is. I wasn't afraid in Iraq, not even in Kirkuk. But I wouldn't want to go to Afghanistan or Dafur.

dunno what is broadcast in ireland but abc, pbs and national geographic (possibly others i'm neglecting) have consistently provided us residents a view into the ongoing trainwreck that is afghanistan.  not an everyday thing admittedly but what i've seen and read has seemed responsible and objective.

last week pbs reported on winners of 2009's alfred i dupont/columbia university awards for outstanding journalism one of which was abc news nightline:

"Opening the program is the story behind a gripping combat report produced by ABC News Nightline and narrated by Brian Ross. Watch a video clip.

The Other War is based on field reporting by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, who were on assignment for Vanity Fair in northeast Afghanistan, a front that until recently has received far less press attention than the war in Iraq. Over a period of 15 months, Junger and Hetherington returned to Afghanistan repeatedly for long tours embedded with an American platoon pursuing Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.  Their video footage, shot in the remote Korengal Valley under the most dangerous circumstances, captures the intense day-to-day reality of waging this war – including extraordinary combat sequences.  “It was the worst combat I’ve ever experienced, by far,” Junger tells Woodruff.  “I feel like the combat footage we got was sort of emblematic of all combat.  It was so intense.  It was so up close.” 

here's a link to a video clip from national geograpic channel's documentary entitled 'inside the green berets; firebase cobra--the true cost of war".  like the previously cited report, this one was the work of journalists embedded for several months with the unit about which they reported. 

the la times regularly publishes first-hand reports from its correspondants in both afghanistan and pakistan. 

you may even remember one notable scum who made several trips to afghanistan following the soviet invasion. he's one of ju's favorite targets.  guy named dan rather.

we could hardly hear less than has been offered officially in iraq.

I fully do not expect to have a daily body count coming from Afghanistan, as the media did from Iraq for years.

Indeed.

Plus I will be surprised if several institutions were to compete in the field of making up "studies" about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Now that they will soon be able photograph the US soldiers caskets (with family permission) flying into Dover, I wonder if they will take advantage or forget about it to protect their guy.

Charles,

   To answer your statements.... Yes, i do beleive that mose Democrats were whinnig the past 8 years, I beleive in solution oriented discussions, not just calling out someone else for doing something wrong. If you want of example of that not working read up on the Kerry Campaign.

In your response to my questioning about the Withdrawl plan, you point to a comment by a congressional Democrat, again, not actually adressing the issue. Your issue is not with the plan, more with congressional democrats? If that is the case we agree on this one. I am really starting to get angry at congressional dems....acting like idiots.

Again, as I stated, I was not one of those people who just complained and complained about Bush. If I had issues with his policies, then I said it, but that was all. I believe I said that in my last post. I guess you can choose not to beleive me, but it is the truth.

My main point is that it seems like at least posters on this forum are resorting to the same "rip on Obama" tactics that they derided for the last 8 years just becasue it was "rip on Bush." All I am saying is step up to the plate and present something substanial, not just complaining.  It makes you look foolish.

The same was done with the Patriot Act post 9/11, and it was attempted with the Immigration Reform Act (luckily that one failed).

The bottom line is that both Democrats and Republicans use the same tactics to get what they want when they are in power.  All too often the people of this country are duped into believing the crap that we are told by the politicians and the media.  We all need to start questioning everything that our elected officials do and hold them to task when they do things that we disagree with.  I'm not saying that we need to write our representatives all them time, I have found that it doesn't work as all of my efforts were ignored in favor of the party line, but during election time when we can actually take people out of office.  We need to bring that 90+% incumbency rate down significantly to remind the officials who they actually work for, as it stands right now they only work for the party and NOT for the people.

I'll respectfully disagree on the Patriot Act (I'm not sure about the Immigration Reform Act). The PA was a truly bi-partisan issue, both the 2001 and 2006 votes (that included Biden twice and Obama, due to length of time in the Senate, once).. LINK IMO they had plenty of time, unlike the stimulus bill, to examine it.

As will I.

I will concede that with the 2006 renewal of it they all had time to know what was in it, but in 2001 it was a rush job and Bush and his cronies did a major selling campaign of fear to get it passed very much like what Obama has done this year with the stimulus bill.

I believe it lasted just a tad more than 48 hours & I believe the 'loyal opposition' was given ample time, not only to read it, but to raise objections & offer amendments.

That is hardly 'much like what Obama has done'.  Not even its supporters read the bill until after voting for it.

I would argue that since the act was renewed in 2006, when everybody, even Joe Biden, definitely knew what it did, we cannot really blame a failure to understand the law as a reason for everyone voting for it in 2001 either.

As for the "stimulus" package, I am still fascinated by the fact that Obama, instead of saving the planet, now decided to save the American car industry. But his fans don't mind, do they?