. . . It Was the Worst of Times* – Part2

. . . It Was the Worst of Times* – Part2

This week I read a disturbing article by Knight-Ridder’s Tom Lasseter about how the Kurds are setting themselves up militarily to secede from greater Iraq when they get the chance.

Now, anyone with an ounce of familiarity with modern Iraqi history understands that Iraq is an artificially created political entity that comprises three primary discrete ethno-religio-social “blocs” – namely the Shi’ite Arabs, who tend to look to Shi’ite Iran; the Sunni Arabs, who tend to look to Syria or Saudi Arabia; and the Kurds, who are Sunnis religiously, but who are the Mid-East’s “red-headed step-children” ethnically, and who tend to look to their fellow co-ethnics in Turkey and Iran.

And, of course, there are in fact centrifugal tensions extant between these three major groups in Iraq:  Indeed, there those experts in the West who have advocated – since the days of the initial US invasion – that the Bush Administration should make it their policy deliberately to seek to break Iraq into three lesser countries – one for the Sunnis, one for the Shi’ites, and another for the Kurds – perhaps with (or without) some sort of unifying Federal relationship.

While this “three-smaller-states” approach does have, in my view, some strong points, the Bush Administration has chosen to attempt to keep Iraq together.  Indeed, after three major elections, there does appear to be some significant progress in that direction – although, of course, there are those forces – both inside Iraq and without – that are both working and praying for Iraq’s disintegration.  One of those forces would appear to be Knight-Ridder’s Tom Lasseter.

After beginning to read Mr. Lasseter’s article about how the Kurds were evidently avidly planning to break away from Iraq by waging open war against their Iraqi Arab brothers-in-arms, I suddenly remembered . . . .  We have featured Tom Lasseter’s Iraq War reporting once before here in JammedGun – and the coverage we gave him was less than favorable, to say the least.  Mr. Lasseter’s reporting had been singled out (for negative notice) at that time by both the Weekly Standard and lgf.

The last time Mr. Lasseter’s reporting caught our eye, he was embedded with a US Marine unit in Western Iraq.  Although Lasseter owed his very life to his Marine handlers, the articles we featured seemingly could not say enough about how brave, militarily savvy, and successful the Sunni “insurgents” (read terrorists) were in their struggle against the American military.

At the time, I highlighted Mr. Lasseter’s writing of such harmful material in time of war, material that could only ENCOURAGE the enemy and DISCOURAGE the very American fighting men guarding Mr. Lasseter’s unworthy hide.

Now, it seems, Mr. Lasseter has perhaps given up (at least temporarily) on his game of lionizing the “insurgents.”  Though I doubt he has written any paeans of praise to the Bush Administration for its success in helping the current Iraqi Government organize and come to power, it probably has occurred to Mr. Lasseter by now that just possibly the “insurgents” are losing.  

Ahh, but all is not lost for Mr. Lasseter and other Bush- and America-haters!  If the insurgents cannot bring down the current Government, a civil war surely can.  

So, THIS time, we see Mr. Lasseter fairly egging on the Kurds whom he paints as virtually spoiling for a fight with their Arab countrymen.  That’s right, Lasseter, I am accusing you of continuing to do your seditionist work against our military’s struggle in Iraq, only this time from a different angle than before.  

Since you were apparently unable to root your terrorist “soul brothers” on to victory, you now see an opening to cause grief in Iraq by highlighting, glorifying, and exacerbating tensions in Iraq between the Iraqi Kurds and their Arab neighbors.

The Bible has a very uncomplimentary phrase for people like Lasseter:  “He that troubleth his own house (where, here, I take the liberty of allowing “house” to represent his country),” (Proverbs 11:29).  

Here is a link to a “sketch” of a reporter who makes trouble for his own country.

As I did in my previous uncomplimentary mention of  Mr. Lasseter, I am posting a link to an email address for Tom Lasseter.  I hope that you will email him to let him know that you are wise to his tricks and that you are not appreciative of his continued work against US success and victory in Iraq.

Additionally, I wanted to provide some contact information for Mr. Lasseter’s paymasters at Knight-Ridder.  Surprise, surprise!  The “Management Team” page  provides “profiles,” but NO CONTACT information for the managers at Knight-Ridder!  

However, here is a link to the contact information for a number of Knight-Ridder managers across the country.  Feel free to drop one or more of them an email and let them know what you think of Mr. Lasseter’s reportorial point of view on Iraq.  

Unfortunately, I have not located contact information on the head of Knight-Ridder’s Washington Bureau, for which Mr. Lasseter works.

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*Giving credit where credit is due, I read Dickenson’s Tale of Two Cities in junior high school, so I have been familiar with this particular turn of phrase for quite a few years.  However, I most recently heard it used in connection with our own particular times by talk-show host, Michael Savage.