When did America become the problem? When did it become the "in" thing to believe that the United States is causing the world's problems? Maybe it's me, but in the last several years, there's been a groundswell of America bashing in print, in Congress, on television screens and at a theatre near you. When allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention facility surfaced in the spring of 2004, the press rightly reported the abuse, and the appropriate actions were taken by the Justice Department in that the 17 soldiers were discharged and seven were charged with, among other things, dereliction of duty and assault, and two of the soldiers were given lengthy prison sentences. Throughout the spring and into the summer, the Abu Ghraib scandal was front-page material.
But for one paper, The New York Times, the coverage was as all-encompassing as "Brangelina" and Britney's latest parenting outtakes are for the tabloids. The "Paper of Record" made the Abu Ghraib controversy their cover story 60 times in 2004, 32 times in a row between May and June of 2004! But when Lt. Michael Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor two weeks ago after being shot down in a firefight by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in 2005 -the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to anyone in the war in Afghanistan- the Times placed the story in their Metro Section. Nice. "All the news that's fit to print," indeed.
Next month in Congress, led by House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the House of Representatives plan to vote on whether or not to label the 1915-1923 massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire genocide, an action that would be interpreted as an insult by one of our few allies in the Middle East: Turkey. Turkey hasn't always been amenable to the United States interests since the war in Iraq began, but today, air bases in Turkey hold 70 percent of all air cargo that supplies U.S. forces currently deployed in Iraq. For what reason other than undermining U.S. efforts in the region is this vote taking place?
Coming to theaters next month is a film called "Redacted." Not having pre-screening perks, I can't say that I've seen it, but from what I understand, the film dramatizes an isolated incident in 2006 where a soldier raped and murdered a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and then killed her family with four of his service men. Two other films in theaters-"Rendition, " currently in theaters, and "Lions for Lambs," which will be released November 9 -similarly paint the United States, its leaders and its military as brutish thugs that like to torture for kicks on a Friday night. As Richard Roeper said in a review for "Rendition", "I don't fault "Rendition" for its liberal politics. I fault it for hammering home those politics in such pounding, slanted fashion." "Rendition" and films like it are made solely to push an ideological agenda. Theirs is apparently to tell the world we're in evil country; to heck with the dishonest imagery they inject into impressionable minds about America and its torturous designs.
If all that wasn't enough, conspiracy nuts converged on Bill Maher's "Real Time" two weeks ago, interrupting his broadcast for several minutes with cries of "cowardice" and "What about Tower 7, Bill!" seemingly indicting the United States for attacking itself. One week ago, the "Truthers" interrupted former president Bill Clinton's speech while on the campaign trail with his wife. Apparently, these nut jobs haven't read Popular Science magazine's description of how the towers fell. Or Purdue University's study, one of the most prestigious engineering universities in the country. Either that or they're completely void of common sense, which is a given.
Diatribes like these accomplish absolutely nothing other than undermining the United States at home and abroad. America has made mistakes, sure. But to report them ad nauseam, to vote on resolutions that could cause us to lose a vital ally in the Middle East, to dramatize mistakes made in war and use them as justification for labeling America a bad country, and to claim America attacked itself to suggest that al Qaeda is not a threat is dishonest and ought to be repudiated. America is a noble nation. The world has problems. America has problems. But America is not the world's problem.
Ben Carder graduated from UNH in 2007 with a degree in English/Journalism, and is now pursuing a master's degree in political science
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