Can't y'all see through these heartwarming Iraqi DOGGIE stories?

[elehhhhna]

There's another one today, right here on DU. Then there's the family who adopted their KIA son's pooches from Iraq.

Anything to keep our eyes off the ball...er, war...er, occupation.

[fascisthunter]

1. I Noticed....

warm and fuzzy

[MADem]

2. What, are you suggesting that Iraqi street dogs for a dead kid isn't a fair trade?

Huh????

Isn't that the heartwarming moral of the story?

[roguevalley]

3. Telling about dogs doesn't minimize anything else. I am glad dogs

make it out of that hell hole. Dogs are treated like shit over there. I will take a nice moment wherever I can find it.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. I'm glad about the dogs, too, but I agree with elehhhhna on why it's in the news

[roguevalley]

6. I don't. Its a ray of light. It shows good can grow amongst the shit.

I love that dog and I'm glad for him and his people.

[FiveGoodMen]

18. As I said, I'm glad for the dog. But the 'ray of light' is being shown to us so we'll put up with

more of the shit.

[roguevalley]

21. My position is that it shows just how bad it is. We don't have to put

up with anything. Any story that puts the war onto the page is good. Besides, the media always does human interest stories. This distracts from nothing but tells the misery of Iraq in another way. IMHO.

[TahitiNut]

5. We love dogs ... but four million displaced Iraqis ... not so much.

All the orphaned Iraqi children? Not so heart-warming. A dog? Ain't he cute?

[elehhhhna]

7. Here in Houston we repair an Iraqi face or two a month at the Med Center.

meanwhile the news blackout keeps us from seeing anything too untidy.

[JohnyCanuck]

8. Yup, I was sort of surprised myself at how little attention

the thread NNN0LHI started on "No More Victims" received on DU. No More Victims is apparently doing some truly amazing work in arranging for medical treatment in the US for Iraqi children wounded in the war. These children would never be able to get the medical treatment they needed were it not for the dedication and hard work of the No More Victims volunteers.

Watch this http://nomorevictims.org/salee.php">Youtube video as No More Victims founding director Cole Miller describes how a 3 year old Iraqi girl, injured after a US tank round hit her house, had her eyesight saved, thanks mainly to the efforts of a 22 year old Florida law student and mother of two. This young lady arranged the community support and got the necessary medical people to volunteer their services, so the child could be brought to the US for the delicate surgery required to save her sight.

[RamboLiberal]

9. Yeah it's such a friggin' conspiracy - give me a break!

Want to know why you don't hear about apopted Iraqi children coming here?

The Department of State has received many inquiries from American citizens concerned about the plight of the children of Iraq and wondering about the possibility of adopting them. At this time, it is not possible to adopt Iraqi children, for several reasons.

In general, intercountry adoptions are private civil legal matters governed by the laws of the children's home country, which has the primary responsibility and jurisdiction for deciding what would be in the children's best interests. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has confirmed that Iraqi law does not currently permit full adoptions as they are generally understood in the United States.

Iraq does grant a more limited arrangement akin to guardianship; however, the U.S. Government is unaware of any non-Iraqis' being granted guardianship of Iraqi children. In addition, even if an Iraqi court were to grant a U.S. citizen guardianship rights for an Iraqi child, the child would likely be unable to immigrate to the United States, unless the citizen could establish both that the child qualifies as an "orphan" as defined in section 101(b)(1)(F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and, under Iraqi law, the "guardianship" order gave the citizen authority not only to care for the child but to bring the United States for the specific purpose of the child's adoption in the United States. Since Iraqi law does not permit adoption, it is not clear that an Iraqi guardianship order could give this authority.

The U.S. and international media have occasionally reported on the difficult situation faced by many Iraqi children, and it is completely understandable that some American citizens want to respond to such stories by offering to open their homes and adopt these children in need. However, it is a generally agreed international principle that uprooting children during a war, natural disaster or other crisis may in fact exacerbate the children's situation. It can be extremely difficult in such circumstances to determine whether children who appear to be orphans truly are. It is not uncommon in a hostile situation for parents to send their children out of the area, or for families to become separated during an evacuation. Even when it can be demonstrated that children are indeed orphaned or abandoned, they are often taken in by other relatives. Staying with relatives in extended family units is generally a better solution than uprooting a child completely.

http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/country_401.html

Oh and in the Iraqi doggie thread I did post a story of a single male soldier who did adopt a disabled orphan Iraqi child he befriended. He had to go through incredible hoops to get it done. And some of you won't like this - his inspiration was that Mel Gibson film "Passion of the Christ". Whatever - he's giving this kid a great home.

I remember posting the story of Youssif the burned Iraqi child that CNN solicited donations and arranged surgery for. To my suprise some here trashed the story cause it was about only 1 child. As another poster mentioned they work in a facility where Iraqi children brought to this country have been treated. Get the new media involved, even if local and post the stories here.

I love these stories about children and dogs. While I hate the war I recognize there are a lot of our military people there who have big hearts and do what they can for both the children and the dogs of Iraq. Don't you think the dogs bring some comfort and feel of home to these troops. They are now even sending therapy dogs to Iraq. I hope that what I read in the first couple years of the war where stupid ass commanders of some of these troops ordered the dogs be shot!

So if you don't like the doggie stories - ignore them - there's lots of room for all kinds of posts on DU! I don't think it keeps anyone on DU from ignoring the horror of Iraq!

[tuckessee]

11. It's not a conspiracy.

It's propaganda.

[RamboLiberal]

12. It's not propaganda - it's just a couple of feel good stories

Like I said - if you don't like 'em ignore them and don't read them!

[tuckessee]

13. I enjoy reading them.

For starters, I like dogs, but more importantly I like to keep up on the latest in propaganda trends put forth by the Pentagon and their mockingbirds in the MSM.

I've enjoyed seeing how they've successfully sold a dead-end war based on lies for close to five years now.

"Feel good" stories (building schools, free soccer balls and now rescued pooches) are staples in their bag of spin.

[RamboLiberal]

14. I've posted 3 stories about Iraqi dogs recently

Two were about the same dog that traveled 70 miles to find Marine who cared for him - Nub. One of the stories was about a family getting 2 dogs their son who died in Iraq brought home.

In the past I remember posting 2 stories. One about a wounded AF soldier who fought to adopt her bomb dog. Other was about a family who fought to adopt their dead son's military dog.

I personally have posted dozen of stories about how we've screwed up Iraq. I've gotten these stories from MSM.

Hardly propaganda - people like you see the occasional feel good story as propaganda - too bad you have to be so cynical.

These stories aren't going to turn people's opinions around that this war was a mistake from the beginning and that we need to get out.

So I like posting feel good dog stories here - shoot me and any other DU'er who posts one! Gee someone here might buy in to the propaganda - on DU - fat chance!

[JohnyCanuck]

15. I would say the mainstream media is propaganda.

I am not saying that nothing they report is true, or that they get together once a week in a big conference and decide what propaganda theme is going to be played up in the next week's news. It is obviously much more subtle than that. The power of the paycheck goes a long way to keep the media whores on track in that they know what stories are "sensitive" and to be avoided or de-emphasized from the point of view of their corporate bosses and advertisers and which stories it is safe to play up and promote. That is, if they want to keep their jobs and get raises and promotions. I'd suggest heart warming stories about an abused Iraqi dog who tracks his soldier benefactor over 70 miles of desert falls into the latter category.

Brainwashing America

by Dr. Norman Livergood.

SNIP

In an earlier article, I reviewed the varied aspects of personality profiling and simulation. While serving as Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College, 1993-1995, I conducted studies on profiling, psychological programming, and brainwashing. I explored and developed personality simulation systems, an advanced technology used in military war games, FBI profiling, political campaigning, and advertising. Part of my discovery was that:

* unenlightened human minds are combinations of infantile beliefs and emotional patterns

* these patterns can be simulated in profiling systems

* these profiling systems can be used to program and control people

Personality simulation systems are being used to create political campaigns that apply voter profiles to control their voting behavior. TV commercials and programs use personality simulation to profile viewers to control their purchasing and viewing behaviors. And sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques are being used by the Bush junta to keep American citizens under control.

http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm

Propaganda in the Free Press
An Interview With Edward Herman

SNIP

The second filter is advertising. The media depend on advertising as their funding source. Newspapers probably get 70 percent of their revenue, on average, from advertising. Television gets over 95 percent from advertisers. The TV stations and networks all have people who go around and try to sell advertisers on their programs. They have to convince them of the merit of the programs in which they want to advertise.

What do the advertisers want? They not only want a large audience, they want an elite audience-the more money the audience has the better. They don't want to upset the audience. They want what is called "a favorable selling environment" for their products. So the advertisers have to be competed for, and they're the underlying funding source. There's no question that they influence what the media will do. They don't interfere all the time. They don't call the media up and discipline them; that's not the main way they work. The main influence they have is that they have to be competed for by the media, and the media has to convince them that their programming meets advertisers needs.

Some advertisers actually have explicit conditions on programming. For example, Proctor and Gamble, one of the biggest advertisers, has an advertising rule that's written down. It will not support programs that insult the military, or that suggests that the business community is not a good and spiritual community. Ben Bagdikian's excellent book, The Media Monopoly, has citations from Proctor and Gamble directly. He also shows that other companies have instructions stating that they will not advertise in media that does not meet "certain standards" which really are political standards.

So, if you're a radical paper, if you really have messages that are going to upset the business community, you're not going to get advertising. This filter limits who will be able to get advertising, and therefore, who can afford to spend a lot of money putting up a quality production. It also influences how the media will approach programming and news because they do not want to offend and chase away advertisers.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=3563

The more time spent on heart warming puppy dog tales means makes it easier to avoid spending time on other stories like this Risk of cholera multiplied by sewage collapse in Baghdad
By Oscar Grenfell, snip:

General Dorko told the February 3 press conference that the “large capital investments” needed meant it could take “two or three or four years” to fix the lack of sewage treatment. In many parts of Baghdad, the situation today is just as bad as it was following the 2003 war, when every aspect of Iraq’s basic infrastructure was in complete collapse due to more than a decade of United Nations sanctions and the impact of US bombing.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Feel good stories ARE propaganda. The press who brought you this war single them out for you.

The story is fine. The fact that you hear about the dog and not the dead is propaganda. And apparently, it's working.

[Recursion]

10. The people in Al Qut left out antifreeze

Dogs were considered a kind of vermin among some of the populations. Not that this is apropos of anything, just that Americans tend to like dogs so there were a whole lot of dogs being adopted.

[michaz]

16. There is nothing wrong with helping these animals. If it means something

to a deceased soldier's family, than it is absolutely fine.

[tuckessee]

17. Aren't there any homeless animals in the US?

I have been a regular contributor to Mr. Mountain and Best Friends in the past but not anymore.

It seems they've solved the abused/neglected animal problem in the US since they now spend their money on propaganda stunts like this.

[FiveGoodMen]

20. There is nothing wrong with helping these animals. Correct.

There is something wrong with selectively using the stories -- as the press does quite a lot -- to make a bad thing (the war) look acceptable.

It shouldn't be hard to keep these ideas separate: Good for the dogs. Good for the people who helped them out. Not so good for the people who won't tell you what a mess we've created but will tell you warm and fuzzy stories to quell the opposition.