03-22-2003, 08:20 PM
I am not the person that either sit glued to the TV or news paper or feel the need to follow what is going on minute by minute. Experience from past events, like Balkans, last Gulf war, other conflicts arround the world and so on, gives that the information you typically get "as it happens" have a high degree of inaccuracy or if true, usually does not tell the whole story anyway. SOrt of better to wait a while for a better "summary" so to speak (which may at times take years to get the full story).
As is obvious, wars are not just fought by the armies, media is just as important, the so called propaganda is, if not crusial, very important. As such, I always tend to be VERY carefully in believing anything that comes from either side in a conflict like this. Even if it is not lies, it may be simply telling only the few things that one want to let out, speculating in such a way that people believe and so on. there are allready countless such cases allready in this war for example.
By the nature of war, it is hard for third party to report directly. Many countries do have reporters and tv teams in bagdad for example, but that is hardly enough to give more info that just visual information about what happens in specific locations in Bagdad, hardly enough to give the over all picture.
So to sum it up, I try to wait a while since that tend to help some to sort out the wrong information and I tend to be very carefull in believeing things from anyone involved in the conflict, sort of starting out with the assumtion that it may not be true, or rather, knowing that it was told for a reason, not just to be nice to media. Everything has a purpose.
As is obvious, wars are not just fought by the armies, media is just as important, the so called propaganda is, if not crusial, very important. As such, I always tend to be VERY carefully in believing anything that comes from either side in a conflict like this. Even if it is not lies, it may be simply telling only the few things that one want to let out, speculating in such a way that people believe and so on. there are allready countless such cases allready in this war for example.
By the nature of war, it is hard for third party to report directly. Many countries do have reporters and tv teams in bagdad for example, but that is hardly enough to give more info that just visual information about what happens in specific locations in Bagdad, hardly enough to give the over all picture.
So to sum it up, I try to wait a while since that tend to help some to sort out the wrong information and I tend to be very carefull in believeing things from anyone involved in the conflict, sort of starting out with the assumtion that it may not be true, or rather, knowing that it was told for a reason, not just to be nice to media. Everything has a purpose.
There are three types of people in the world. Those who can count and those who can't.