Aren't Americans ignorant of world affairs, of what's going on in the Middle-East?

Question

It seems to me that most Americans, have a very flimsy idea of what has been happening in the Middle-East. I base my statement on the fact that most of those who answer questions regarding the Middle-East portray the fact that Israel has the right to protect itself from its enemies because they are terrorists. I presume they get their information about these matters from TV channels like Fox News, CNN, etc. Well, these channels do not show Americans the atrocities commited by the Jews against innocent civilians, labeled as "a measured" military action.

CHECK OUT WHAT YOU AMERICANS ARE NOT SHOWN ON Fox News, CNN, etc. : I leave it ot your conscience.

http://www.halturnershow.com/IsraeliAtrocities
http://www.fromisraeltolebanon.info

Before you cry wolf, I do not support terrorism as a means of achieving any goals, but when you use F16s to destroy innocent civilian lives and a country's infrastructure, well, that's called disproportionate use of force! And this too, is terrorism!!!

Answer 1

With these actions (and others) Israel has lost the right to be called a 'civilised nation' They are acting as the best publicity agents that Hezbollah could wish for. Mark my words, at the next election in Lebanon, Hezbollah will win. Israel with Hamas to the south, Hezbollah to the north? Bye, bye, Israel, and good riddance.

Answer 2

A few interesting points you have raise there, so I thought I would add my tuppence worth to it.

What people have to remember is the media show what they want to show, so the British media are biased towards Britain and the American media is biased towards America etc etc.

Whenever you see picture and footage of places in africa where famine is widespread (the tendency to show stuff like this when it is a charity involved), if the camera was to take a wee soujorn to the nearest town/city, there you would see people living not in poverty but in fact very rich, but they only show the bad stuff because it makes people more sympathetic.

The same goes for the footage of war, they will only show what the American forces are doing and then try and justify it without showing the real reasons behind it, it really is a case of protecting the majority of people back home.
These same people think that what they see is all it is and there is nothing more.

I think what we really need to do is put a bit of faith in our own governments and trust that whatever reason they are doing what they are doing is because it is justified.
At the end of the day the governments are privy to a lotmore information than the common layman and they are only acting in that way because they think it is the best option available with the information they have.

The common person, who has limited information, doesn't realise this and just look upon the matter as being something black and white, right or wrong. Rather than finding out more and more facts from both sides of the story before basing their opinion on it.

By the way good question.

Answer 3

Americans and Middle Easterners are both equally ignorant. I have a question: What about the terrorists atrocities against Westerners? Given that, I'd say that the Middle Easterners have a very flimsy idea of what some of their countrymen have done to the West. I do not support terrorism, but when terrorism is committed, then I believe there is a right to strike back instead of negotiating. And I say, no war is good, but when you're trying to target Hezbollah's infrastructure in an area that you are unfamiliar with, it is not easy to prevent the deaths of civilians. Plus, I remember on the news once where Israel asked for civilians to evacuate the city. I don't remember a terrorist asking that before it sends in an attack force.

Answer 4

Oh, they know what is hapening there, informations is there in the news,but it seems mostly irelevant, the whole middle east ould be nuked ,and if there were no afterefect nobady would care.
It is not only america, most of the west is also in that blissfull ignorance.
But what bothers me is that world is also ignorant about hunger, thirst, tsunami victims, these did not ask for the ills that they have.
At least the Hezballah has put its hand in fire with capturing the soldiers when they had free libanon of any Israeli military.
Who plays with fire , dies/burns with fire. The problem is that Hezballah has had a growing support in Lebanon, and know when you have Lebanese victims in war operations you blame Israel for a intervention and all civilian casualities.
When you give support for Hezballah, what did you expect Hezaballah will do? These victims are also on Hezballah accounts as they are on Israeli .
Man they had clean Lebanon, with a step from normalacy and prosperity , and you support a stupid leader that takes you country again to destruction.
I can only say they ( Lebanon citizens ) deserve what they got, not in a way from Israelis, but you have chosen a military party to support , when you could find some party that is only oriented to life, prosperity, and good of the people.

Answer 5

After traveling to other countries, such as the UK and Australia, I did come to learn that our news is rather lacking in giving the full story. It's disturbing! It wasn't until my travels that I could understand why other countries harbored such animosity toward us. Truly, we have very censored television and news. It's not the peoples' fault really - most believe CNN and Fox News to be the most accurate and thorough coverage. We have no reason to believe that the entire story's not being told ...until 'we' travel abroad and see other sources for news coverage and learn the awful truth. In this country, you can't just flip on the television to gain an understanding of the world's events. We are told what our governing bodies want us to know, for the most part (although I'm sure some of our presidents would have loved to censored some of their own actions - coughmonicalewinsky) If we want to have broad coverage of a topic, we must research it on our own, be it Internet (and then who do you believe?) or by cable broadcast of UK news, but not all citizens here have or can afford cable (paid TV) Some Americans may come off as pompous, but I believe it's based on their limited knowledge of world affairs. They honestly believe that we're always in the right because that's what they're fed day in and day out. Like any other country, we have our good and our bad, but we never hear about the bad, that's the difference. OK, I take some of that back, we do hear some of the bad, but it seems to go away rather quickly. And before anyone bashes me for being "Un American" I am a very proud one and would die for this news censored country! :)

Answer 6

I am American and I don't think I am ignorant at all about the current middle east crisis. I agree with you and I steer clear from our biased news channels. It's easy for Americans to be ignorant of world affairs since our news is so biased and most of us are lazy and only get our news from TV. When I do watch the regular evening news their coverage of the middle east crisis lasts about 2 minutes and is not very informative at all, and usually stresses what is happening in Israel, not Lebanon.

Most of us don't agree with Bush at all, I sure as hell didn't vote for him, and I think all this is creating more and more hostility toward our country. Israel is going beyond defending themselves and the US should be seeking an immediete ceasefire so that at least lebanese can safely evacuate the country.

Answer 7

As a Canadian living in America the truth is that unless people have an interest they are just not informed, Fox is all Republican crap, CNN is only interested in making themselves look better by telling only the most exciting stories, not always the most important ones and local news stations are only concerned with the latest car chase. To Americans, trouble in the middle east is a hurricane in Kansas.

Answer 8

What do Americans have to do with this situation?Why don't you e-mail the U.N. with this.Why is it important for you to inform Americans about your concerns over this conflict? Why don't the Lebanese get Hezbollah out of there country instead of letting them terrorize people by lobbing rockets into there cities?These civilian's appear to have been abandoned by the Lebanese government as they do not have the will or desire to remove an apparent terrorist group from there midst

Answer 9

There you non-Americans go generalizing about all Americans again!

Yes, there are plenty of Americans that are ignorant of world affairs. Our main sources of news media paint a liberally-slanted picture for us of what's going on in the Middle East, but if we take the time to look beyond the slant, we can see the basic facts of the case and formulate our own opinions just like you "knowledgeable" non-Americans do.

P.S. It's pretty ignorant to judge all Americans based on the teenagers who are responsible for the majority of posts on this forum. Don't you think?

Answer 10

100% and remember that Hezbollah organised to kick Israel out in the 70s - and they are responsible for free healthcare, education, hospitals etc and the lebanese govt is supportive of them in the most part. I dont know what precipitated their attack on israel - not much information forthcoming from any news channel/paper - but i would be surprised to hear its unprovoked. Israel is supported mainly by US but also UK, although this govt getting a bit pissed off with Israel for indiscriminate attacks. Americans ought to realise that despite the size of their continent, the rest of the planet is getting really cheesed off with their continual interference in internal affairs of countries that surround the worlds main source of oil.