False Prophets and Charlatans

Davids Medienkritik has a terrific post today about the shenanigans going on in the German political-media axis. The dissection of how the German politicos are so beholden to the power of the German Leftist media (i.e., by reporting everything about Iraq in a negative light, the Leftist media makes it possible for Chancellor Schroeder to claim that the Iraq War is a disaster; and by reporting that a Merkel government would be preferred by Washington, the Leftist media in essence tries to swing the upcoming elections around the central issue of anti-Americanism) is quite thorough.

Also of much interest is the quotation from predictions by Socialist politicians as noted in Deutsche Welle (and translated into English by David):

Claudia Roth (Greens) predicted that an attack on Iraq would unleash a firestorm in the wider Middle East, implying that the entire region could be thrown into a state of war.

Olaf Scholz, Secretary General of the SPD (Schroeder's Social Democratic Party): The war will "likely result in the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people."

Heidi Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD), Minister of Development Aid: She expected "hundreds of thousands of innocent people, civilians, children, women" to become war victims, and she expected two to three million refugees. Like Roth, Zeul also said that the Iraq war would "unleash an unimaginable firestorm" in the region.

The former SPD-politician Erhard Eppler expected "the lives of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions (of people) at risk".

Jürgen Trittin (The Greens), Minister for the Environment: "The Ministry of the Environment has several studies, among them UN documents. According to these 40.000 to 200.000 victims of military actions can be expected. (...) We are afraid, that up to 200.000 more people might die from the consequences of a war."

Christian Ströbele, MP (Greens): "Tens of thousands of deaths..."

Wolfgang Thierse, President of the German Parliament (SPD): "I think of the millions of people in Baghdad, who will be victims of bombs and rockets."

Great job from David!



[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

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