Dear Members and Friends,
In recent weeks, leading up to Memorial Day, Newsweek magazine printed allegations that US personnel at Guantanamo prison flushed pages of the Quran, ostensibly during interrogation of prisoners there that happen to be of the Islamic faith. Then, the single source of this story could not verify its veracity, and Newsweek was forced to offer a retraction. Meanwhile, in riots caused by these media borne allegations, people were killed.
I find it interesting that concurrent with the original decision of Newsweek, American mass media outlets have been systematically and consistently reticent regarding the open sharing of the lurid details of people being explicitly, regularly and brutally murdered at the hands of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – contractors, aid workers, anyone even remotely considered a US ally. The media has also been relatively silent regarding the conduct of our men and women in uniform that has resulted in these facts emerging in Iraq:
Over
3 million kids have up to date immunizations.
2,405
schools have been renovated.
The
port of Uhm Qasar has been renovated so grain can be off-loaded from
ships faster.
Over
4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever.
The
country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the
war.
100%
of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before
the war.
Elections
are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
Sewer
and water lines are installed in every major city.
Over
400,000 people have telephones – for the first time.
An
interim constitution has been signed.
Girls
are allowed to attend school.
The
training of 33,000 secondary school teachers and administrators has
been completed.
Why is it that so many of our journalists seem to believe that reporting is only responsible when it magnifies our own military’s mistakes while minimizing the savagery of our enemies? Why is it that negative truth, allegedly pertaining to a few, deserves more print than widespread rebuilding and restoration affecting millions?
Let’s for the moment assume that the negative claims, as initially put forth, were true. Was it not the responsibility of those in power to consider what the wider ramifications might be if they went to press?
Personally, I find the notion of maltreating any religion’s scripture as completely abhorrent and certainly not in any way a decent _expression of my own faith. However, the thing that disturbs me most of all in this recent rush to report is that not only were largely good men and women besmirched, but others lost their lives.
It is all well and good that Newsweek issued a public retraction. The problem is that retractions do not always restore reputations, and they can never raise the dead back to life.
From Reverend William J. Keane,
Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford
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