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March 12, 2005
Naive or Just Plain Stupid?
Is the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena naive or just plain stupid? Or is this just how communists think?
Giuliana Sgrena, of course, is hostage who was ransomed from her terrorist kidnappers in Iraq by her government. She writes for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto.
The more I read about this story the curiouser and curiouser it gets. Jack Kelly had some details on her thinking in his column yesterday:
Sgrena went to Iraq to report on the heroic resistance to the American imperialists. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos rode in the airplane to Baghdad with her.So she counts herself as an enemy of America, it would seem. Nice.
"Be careful not to get kidnapped," Doornbos warned Sgrena.
"You don't understand the situation," she responded, according to Doornbos' account in the Nederlands Dagblatt. "The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers. The enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear." Sgrena left her hotel the morning of Feb. 4th to interview refugees from Fallujah, the resistance stronghold captured by U.S. Marines in November.
The interviews didn't go well. "The refugees...would not listen to me," she said. "I had in front of me the accurate confirmation of the analysis of what the Iraqi society had become as a result of the war and they would throw their truth in my face."
This sort of stuff boggles the mind. Can anyone be so naive?Sgrena's feelings were hurt that the refugees could be so curt to: "I who had risked everything, challenging the Italian government who didn't want journalists to reach Iraq and the Americans who don't want our work to be witnessed of what really became of that country with the war and notwithstanding that which they call elections."
Unfortunately yes. This is what the communist mindset is all about. From Lenin on down, they have believed that they have a mission to educate "the masses" about the reality of what is going on in the world. The people are fooled by the capitalists, imperialists, religious leaders, etc, into adopting a "false reality." It is the mission of the elite to educate them and lead them to a proper understanding. And, if the communists do come into power and the masses don't cooperate, just shoot them or send them to the gulag. Either will do.
But I don't have time this morning for a full exploration of this topic. A few more tidbits will have to suffice for now.
LGF has a link to a Dutch reporter, Harald Doornbos, who know Sgrenga. He backs up Kelly's description:
'Be careful not to get kidnapped,' I told the female Italian journalist sitting next to me in the small plane that was headed for Baghdad. 'Oh no,' she said. 'That won't happen. We are siding with the oppressed Iraqi people. No Iraqi would kidnap us.'
It doesn't sound very nice to be critical of a fellow reporter. But Sgrena's attitude is a disgrace for journalism. Or didn't she tell me back in the plane that 'common journalists such as yourself' simply do not support the Iraqi people? 'The Americans are the biggest enemies of mankind,' the three women behind me had told me, for Sgrena travelled to Iraq with two Italian colleagues who hated the Americans as well.
(Doornbos goes on to explain how the women demeaned him for travelling as an embedded reporter with the US military, for security reasons. They didn't want to hear about any safety concerns.)
'You don't understand the situation. We are anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, communists,' they said. The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers, the enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear.
(Doornbos tells them they're out of their mind.)
But they knew better. When we arrived at Baghdad Airport, I was waiting for a jeep from the American army to come pick me up. I saw one of the Italian women walking around crying. An Iraqi had stolen her computer and television equipment. They were standing outside shivering, waiting for a cab to take them to Baghdad.
You just can't make this stuff up.
LGF also reports that her story is unraveling fast.
Predicatably, the left-wingers in the US support her whacko version of events. If you can stomach it, check out this example here.. At least more respectable outlets like The Nation seem to be ignoring her.
This entire situation is at once bizarre and hohum. Bizarre because once again we are reminded of just how out-to-lunch some people on the left are. Hohum because we've seen it so many times over the past century and a half.
Posted by Tom at March 12, 2005 10:45 AM
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