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November 26, 2005
War or not a war?
Evidently President Bush discussed whether to bomb Al Jazeera , a revelation the propgandist network called "both shocking and worrisome" and one from which the WH is already scurrying. As this story develops, most on the left will offer similar outrage, and most of that will be genuine. But the NY Sun's Daniel Johnson says W and Tony Blair wouldn't have been wrong to consider the option:
That shutting down Al Jazeera would be desirable from the Anglo-American point of view is obviously true. And if Qatar, a Gulf state that is nominally an ally of America (on which it relies for its independence), has allowed its capital to become Al Qaeda's principal propaganda base, it has no right to expect America automatically to refrain from punitive action on its territory.
The wider issues raised by the Bush-Blair Al Jazeera exchange are two. First, how far can the West tolerate the dissemination of Islamist propaganda intended to poison the minds of Muslims against Jews and "Crusaders"? Second, how much information are Western governments obliged to give about their internal decision-making process, and are they justified in suppressing sensitive information, even if this means penalizing the press, to protect Western interests?
Read the whole article.
Posted by bill at November 26, 2005 06:17 PM
