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Narrative Problems

Bing West at SWJ discusses the problem of America’s conflicting narratives on Iraq, offers some good insight into reasons for optimism, as well as some of the complexities and obstacles.

Channeling Mattis, he raises some good points. But he doesn’t dive deep enough into this problem of conflicting narratives, in which the semantics and style of daily news coverage represent only the surface of a deep and troubling alternate view of history in a country where large factions have entirely different understanding of what the facts are. I mean the United States and divergent beliefs re the threat Saddam posed; WMD;  why this war was started; whether Bush lied; whether the administration has engaged in illegal activities. Among other things. 

Then there are the alternate views of what constitutes our national interest, what happens if we leave, whether parties such as Iran can be partners for peace.  Taken together, it transcends different narratives to form entirely different and conflicting world views. As though we are living in different nations but still have to deal with the consequences of each other’s belief systems.

Topics: Iraq, media, military, pols

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:22 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2007

7 Responses to “Narrative Problems”

1. The Thunder Run Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 11:13 am

   Web Reconnaissance for 07/17/2007

   A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.

2. Purple Avenger Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

   West succumbs to the narrative here as well:
   

   When I went back in April, the American advisers proudly showed me the progress made under a new, non-sectarian Iraqi National Police battalion. Yet in late June, twenty beheaded bodies, believed to be Shiites, were found there.

   by failing to mention that perhaps this is precisely why those bodies were found there.

   We should expect apparent atrocities anywhere there is progress, because the opposition is very well aware of how the US media will portray it.

3. saltydog Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 2:41 pm

   One wants to believe that both narratives are innocent in their motives, but I do not think that is so. Perhaps many, or even the majority, of the hate-Bush crowd innocently believes their narrative, but as soon as one looks behind the curtain, one finds George Soros and his minions pushing buttons, pulling levers, and especially, writing the scripts we hear parroted over and over–even here.

4. RebeccaH Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 6:20 pm

   Yet in late June, twenty beheaded bodies, believed to be Shiites, were found there.

   Even worse, PA: that story was subsequently found to be unsubstantiated by anyone in the region. Associated Bias simply spread what is probably a lie by one of their “trusted” stringers without questioning anything.

5. tanstaafl Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 10:40 am

   Whereas it’s true that your description of the elephant is a function of where you’re standing…

   The narrative I favor in Iraq is that the beheading, slaughtering, intentional sowers of chaos continue to be relentlessly squeezed and have fewer and fewer places to hide and fewer and fewer opportunities to set up centers for IED fabrication and the like.

   The news of the July 4 capture of Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid,and that”…the group’s foreign-based leadership wields considerable influence over the Iraqi chapter (of Al Qaeda)”matches my perception and is positive.

6. Ed Driscoll.com Says:
   July 19th, 2007 at 12:07 am

   “The Narrative Was Right, But The Facts Were Wrong”

   In a “Best of the Web” item on the media’s swarming mass attack on the Duke lacrosse players, James Taranto spots this year’s equivalent of 2004’s “fake but accurate” RatherGate defense, from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas, famous for another line regar…

7. tanstaafl Says:
   July 19th, 2007 at 9:32 am

   Classic line, eh wot Ed ?

   “We fell into a stereotype of the Duke lacrosse players,” says Newsweek’s Evan Thomas. “It’s complicated because there is a strong stereotype [that] lacrosse players can be loutish, and there’s evidence to back that up. There’s even some evidence that that the Duke lacrosse players were loutish, and we were too quick to connect those dots.”

   But he adds: “It was about race. Nifong’s motivations clearly were rooted in his need to win black votes. There were tensions between town and gown, that part was true. The narrative was properly about race, sex and class. . . . We went a beat too fast in assuming that a rape took place. . . . We just got the facts wrong. The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.”

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