Written By : John Hawkins

One of the biggest problems we have in the war on terrorism is that our media, almost by default, takes the side of the terrorists. It’s not just that they reveal sensitive classified data that helps get Americans killed; it’s that they slavishly slant almost every story in a way that helps the terrorists and puts Americans on the defensive.

Let’s take a look at one example of that from Reuters. It’s called, “U.S. forces shoot Iraqi boy dead after grenade attack.“

Here’s the beginning of the piece:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Saturday its troops had shot dead a 12-year-old Iraqi boy suspected of throwing a grenade at them, and said it believed insurgents were paying children to help them.

Iraqi police, speaking on condition of anonymity, said however the boy, whom they named as Omar Moussa Salih, had not been involved in the grenade-throwing.

U.S. and Iraqi forces came under grenade attack Thursday in the western part of Mosul, the northern city seen as a final stronghold of al Qaeda and other insurgents, said Major Derrick Cheng, a U.S. spokesman in northern Iraq.

U.S. forces responded by firing at several people, killing the boy. He was found with 10,000 Iraqi dinars, or around $8.50, in his hand.

“We have every reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks or assist the attackers in some capacity, but undoubtedly placing the children in harm’s way,” Cheng said.

The whole idea here is to paint the US troops in as negative a light as possible. They killed a 12 year old boy. He was probably innocent. The troops randomly fired at people.

Note who gets off easy: the terrorists. The piece could have just as easily gone something like this:

Terrorists recruit children to carry out attacks

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — According to the US military, the terrorists in Iraq have stooped to shameful new low: paying innocent children to launch attacks at troops.

“Obviously, the idea here is to get these children killed making terrorist attacks in an effort to generate bad publicity for US forces,” said Sgt. Gina Smith, a mother of two.

Muhammad al-Farouke, an Iraqi policeman added, “It’s a disgrace that they’ve sunk this low. Even the Nazis didn’t try to dupe children into getting killed.”

Notice where the focus of that fictional article is: on the terrorists causing the problem, not the soldiers trying to help save Iraqi civilization.

That’s how the press should be covering this conflict. Instead, no matter how despicable the tactics of the terrorists are, they receive no condemnation. Meanwhile, our troops are held to an almost impossible standard. If the press were on Al-Qaeda’s payroll, they couldn’t do a much better job of slanting their coverage to help them and hurt our troops.

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