Media Overstates Basra Unrest

Last week a group of 150 brave Iraqis in Tal Afar took to the streets to protest against the terrorists living in their border city:

The (Iraqi) station showed a demonstration of about 150 people of Tal Afar holding banners declaring: “We call on the government to kick out terrorists from Tal Afar.” One young man told a television interviewer, “What we want from the Iraqi government is to kill those terrorists.”

You would not have known about this event from the Western media because it was not reported on except for a quick blurb in one story by an LA Times reporter.

Yesterday, “500” Iraqis protested in Basra, a city with an estimated population of 1,377,000. This story was reprinted by every major media outfit in the West. You could even find video of the protest on the BBC, Reuters, etc. You would have thought the whole country was up in arms over the Brits rescuing themselves from some police thugs. Here is just one example of a Western headline for the protest:

Iraqis in Basra Slam ‘British Aggression’

One British politician, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, is already using this overstatement by the media in his arguments against Prime Minister Tony Blair:

After this week’s events in Basra we cannot sustain the myth that Iraqis see coalition troops as liberators. What they see is an occupation.

“The prime minister’s pride should not get in the way of finding a solution for the people of Iraq.

“His blind support for George Bush is continuing to cost lives – Iraqi citizens and coalition soldiers.

Iraqi President Talabani says Iraq still needs American and Allied forces to fight terrorism in his country.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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