Here’s one of my patented I-don’t-agree-with-everything-in-this-post-but-it’s-too-damn-good-to-ignore posts. Captain KJ is an American serving in Iraq, and this is her post about the way the American MSM reports on American deaths, doesn’t report on Iraqi deaths, and gives a bad impression of America to Iraqis in multiple ways.
But where she says that exercising their freedom of speech is one of those ways, that is where she and I diverge. This is an excerpt, of course, but I encourage you to read the whole post, because she makes several complex points.
…What does it say to the Iraqis that we yell and scream (or our visible press does) about 20 American deaths when, in this ongoing conflict, a “light casualty day” for civilians in Baghdad is a day when there are less than 50 deaths? What are we saying about our relative valuing of American and Iraqi lives? Perhaps we should consider the messages that we’re carrying around the world when we have hysterics in the press the way we do. Granted, no nation or people can escape a certain amount of ethnocentrism, but it looks really bad to the people here when we obsess continually about American lives lost (which are, after all, lives lost who had volunteered to put themselves in the path of danger), and remain dismissively mute about the Iraqi lives lost, except as an underscore to continually harping about American deaths…
and my comment:
A good post. Respect for American lives does not require the negation of the personhood of any other nationalities, and I haven’t seen it put as well as it is here. But do you think that anyone Stateside gives a moment’s thought to how the US appears to Iraqis? I don’t: your post is the single most humanistic thing I’ve read about the Iraqis since…yes, since the last time I read Al Jazeera.
I have to strongly disagree, however, that parroting the party line strengthens the country. The Iraqis already know the US is divided: the US really is divided. Opposition and debate are inherent in the democratic process and certainly the Founding Fathers of the United States knew and valued this. It’s messy. It’s complicated. But it is the mark of an advanced nation that it tolerates ambiguity and difference, and venerates freedom of speech. There is no point in your being there, trying to bring democracy to Iraq, if they don’t know that this is how it works; they already know how totalitarianism and government censorship work. They know it all too well.
raincoaster 
You know, I agree with you that freedom of the press is important. We don’t see enough of it out here. It’s just that, being out here, listening to the Arabic-speaking world’s take on what we’re doing… We’re not translating correctly. They don’t hear reasoned dissent; they hear that we’re ready to take each other down in violent ways. (Which of course won’t be happening, but they play it up like it is.)
I guess all I’m saying is that we need to think about the perceptions of people outside our own culture when we exercise our (much needed) right to freedom of the press. Not censor ourselves, but at least think before we speak–or write. Does that clarify what I’m saying?
Yes, thank you. It certainly does.
Believe me, I know that balance is in short supply in the Arabic-language news outlets, which is why I am pleased to see Al Jazeera bucking the trend. It’s a little like Japan, where debate isn’t considered a sign of strength but rather of weakness. Communicating meaningfully across this gulf is difficult, but we must not believe it is impossible, or it will be. Britain used to be good at reasoned debate on a national scale, but it, too, has become increasingly strident as each side shrieks louder to get its voice heard. I don’t know what it will take to get us all back to a place where we can work together towards the truth, but right now, sadly, we seem to be working against one another, for agendas that are not only hidden but taken for granted. I do not exempt Canada, my own country, from this; Canwest Global has been known to fire people who diverge noticeably from the Asper’s position on Israel, for instance.
Yes! There are those of us who do think of what the Iraqi’s are thinking of America and realizing that we are falling far short of getting our intentions and ideals across to this other world. Culturally each nationality seems to interpret the same words in a completely different manner. This is important and needs to be addressed, and not a simple matter. Perhaps that is why in our own countries we tend to shout and argue our own points and completely miss the other person’s? This is difficult, but not insurmountable?