Useful Fools

Posted By John Moore on March 31, 2003

If you mention the name Jane Fonda to those of us who are veterans of the Vietnam War, you will observe a visceral response of disgust, followed by words like traitor and hanging and others best not repeated. Jane Fonda went to Vietnam during that war and broadcast propaganda for the enemy, most notoriously smiling while being filmed pretending to operate an anti-aircraft gun, earning her the name “Hanoi Jane”. Hanoi Jane’s only mitigating factor is her intelligence, which is approximately that of a doorknob.

Now we have Peter Arnett broadcasting anti-American propaganda on Saddam’s TV network! Arnett reported that the coalition’s first war plan “had failed” because of “Iraq’s resistance” and said Americans are “trying to write another war plan.” He also credited reports of Iraqi resistance (i.e. deaths of Americans) with causing rising resistance against the war in the US (a total falsehood) and a rising challenge against President Bush (another total falsehood). Overall he gives the impression that the brave Iraqis are strongly resisting, defeating American plans and causing anti-war sentiment to rise significantly within the states.

Contrast this with the realities that will not be heard in the Arab world: the fastest military movement in history; the total dominance of the air and the use of weapons of extreme precision, harming very few civilians; the extremely lopsided casualty ratio; the many vile and vicious illegal tactics of the Iraqis; the history of horrible brutality by the Baathist regime.

Put yourself into the mind of a young, frustrated Arab in Lebanon or Syria, the Palestinian Territories, or other Arab countries. You have been exhorted to go to Iraq and martyr yourself. Maybe you are on the way there. You have been told that this is an imperialist invasion of “white people” vs “brown people” and infidels vs. muslims.

In addition to all the biased coverage you hear from Arab media, you now hear from an American reporter an interview that leaves you feeling that the Americans are losing.

What picture does this paint? Iraq needs resistance fighters. Such fighters may cause increased opposition to the war in the US, causing the US to withdraw. So you go to Baghdad, strap explosives to yourself, and blow up a few American soldiers!

Now imagine that you are an Iraqi military commander. The United States has been working very hard to get you to surrender. You have been considering it. Then you hear the Peter Arnett report and think better of it. If you surrender and the Americans don’t win, you and your family will be killed, horribly. This American reporter implies that the Americans might be losing their will and may quit. So you decide not to defect. The net result: some coalition soldiers die from your decision, and you and most of your men die.

Propaganda is one of the most important tools of this war. Peter Arnett knows this, and he knows that the US plans to use the truth in attempts to cause significant surrenders, saving potentially millions of Iraqi’s and hundreds to thousands of Americans and British.

Even knowing this, Peter Arnett helps the enemy counter our propaganda. This is the act of a traitor! Arnett has no excuse. He knows what he is doing… after all, he has done it before!

Peter Arnett is no better than Hanoi Jane. In some ways he is worse., although he hasn’t yet caused our POW’s to be abused, as she did. His reports during the first Gulf War were strongly biased towards Iraq.

Also, he was involved in an infamous 1998 CNN report accusing US Special Forces of using Sarin gas on a village to kill US defectors during the Vietnam War. This story was completely baseless, and even the leftish CNN reprimanded Arnett His job was temporarily saved by the Nuremberg defense: “I was just doing my job,”
although his contract subsequently was not renewed.

Peter Arnett is in Baghdad. He is proud to be the only western TV reporter allowed to stay by the vicious Hussein regime. The Special Forces have a serious grudge to settle with him over the Sarin gas lie. Let us hope he is still in Baghdad when they arrive… there would be an instance of “collateral damage” that few Amerians would shed a tear over.

If you feel like writing a letter, Peter Arnett works for both NBC (which is strongly backing Arnett) and National Geographic.

[Update 3/31 2105Z : Baghdad Pete has been fired by both NBC and National Geographic]

[Update: 4/1 0000Z: Baghdad Pete has been hired by the left wing Guardian UK

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