Self, Media, Inflicted British Bombing

Most of the doctors suspected in the latest British bombing cases - the unexploded Mercedes Benzs in London and the suicide Jeep bomb in Glasgow - seem young. Of those arrested, one was from Jordon, one was from Bangalore (although Australians think they may not have a case on him because he may have been just a roommate of other doctors suspected of masterminding the bombings), and the rest were Iraqis.

Ignoring the classic, but flawed, pet theory the the left-wingers, mainly the media, puts out that most terrorists are young people in poor Muslim countries that don't have a future and that development and democracy will turn these people around, what about these doctors? Surely they are well off than the July 7 2005 or other suicide bombers? Why are these doctors, apparently unconnected to al-Qaeda, planning and executing to blow up innocent people partying at night or traveling for vacation?

I think it has to do with Iraq war - not so much the US and UK attack on Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein to impose democracy by force but the coverage of the war in west, especially by the British press. Since before 2003, the media in Britain (and in Europe) was relentless in not just opposing the war but portraying the war as war against Islam and against Muslims. No credit is given to the removal of a tyrant who was in power for more than two decades, brutalizing his people, killing Kurds, gassing Shiites, and destroying the lives of river people. There is no balance in their coverage of Americans trying to hold the line against al-Qaeda under Abu Musab al-zarqawi, against relentless killing of Iraqis using suicide bombs, and against Iranian supported to Sunni milita killing Shiites and blowing up Shiite holy places.

True, it all began with the knaving war by the US and UK to get rid of Saddam Hussein under the deception of WMDs. And the American civilians leadership under Don Rumsfeld were utterly incompetent. But what about the liberated Iraqis free from Saddam's tyranny? Aren't they free people? Should the media, especially BBC and print, be worried about the their future also while going after the Americans and Tony Blair?

The relentless news and op-ed coverage with gory TV impacts anyone. It is especially powerful because it was played up as being an attack on Islamic nation - Saddam Hussien's Iraq was hardly an religious country, it surely was no Saudi Arabia - and as an attack on Muslims, although Muslims were being oppressed by Saddam for decades. Western media generally has two sets of rules - one set for the west and another set for everyone else. The others oppressed by tyrant are happy people, while any some curbs on western people freedoms is tyrannical.

In any case, while the media will hardly look at itself in the mirror - not the BBC, not the Guardian, or the Independent, they are the ones who arouse passion among Muslims living in Britain. It was teenagers on July 7th 2005 who blow up trains and buses after training in Pakistan's al-Qaeda outpost. Now it's young Iraqi doctors who have, it seems, came to think that Iraqis were better off under Saddam's and his brutal sons, Uday and Qusay, tyranny. The contrast between Iraqis living in US, who, at least, until recently were ardent supporters of Iraq invasion and removal of Saddam's dictatorship couldn't be starker.