Amid the universal refusal by all of the candidates we are told are "electable" to commit to ending the Iraq War debacle as a solid majority of Americans want them to do and the daily positioning and finger pointing and scandal du jour that has too often dominated so much political discourse of late, including I have to admit at times my own, that sometimes those of us who think and write politics lose sight of big picture issues.Like the fact that 9/11 was caused by Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and not by Iraq and Saddam Hussein. And that the Arab world remains a very troubled and troubling place and one which we Americans seem to pay insufficient attention to, busy as we are desparately defending civil liberties, watching our jobs and incomes off-shored and just trying to survive in Fortress America that the flurry of attention once gained by the then upstart Arabic cable news network Al-Jazeera has largely faded and much foreign affairs coverage related mostly to the posturing of politicians in Washington and Arab global neighbors ignored or treated as a football in the politicos' own complicated game plans.
Which made this 2005 history of the Al-Jazeera news channel that passed under my scanner today timely. A reminder that while we are making a mess of things in Iraq we have made pitifully little progress at coming to understand the huge chunk of the world for whom Al-Jazeera is a primary source of information, a base understanding which I believe is pre-requisite to any serious discussion of addressing the terrorism issue, which would benefit enormously by losing the hyperbolic "War" rhetoric and a shift to focus on effective law enforcement, reasonable rather than excessive security measures, and a serious effort at brokering a workable and lasting peace among the the diverse peoples of the Arabic world and their global neighbors.
It is worth pointing out that had the security measures that were in place and on the books on 9/11/2001 actually been followed, none of the four hijackings would have been successful. The fact that boarding an airplane is now very nearly as invasive and unpleasant an experience as being booked in to jail has made us no safer than had we merely followed the procedures we already had in place. But I will likely be accused of treason for saying so, and never mind that it is an obvious fact.
If you do not speak Arabic, there is an English language version of Al-Jazeera, although I was unable to find specifics about cable/satellite system availability and pricing. There is also an English language version of Al-Jazeera online. It is worth checking out from time to time so as to be aware of how global events are perceived and reported in the Arabic world. For similar reasons I also strongly recommend reading news of the United States in the International coverage of the UK Guardian.
