Guest Column
Immigration Debate Used to Detract from Iraq War
- Immigration Debate Used to Detract from Iraq War
- By Robert Miranda
- May 25 , 2007
- So it is safe to say that as the Bush Administration underreports the violence that has rocked Iraq in order to suit its policy goals, the rightwing media has also been extensively misreporting on the immigration issue in order to focus the American public?s attention away from the quagmire known as Iraq.
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- Robert Miranda, a frequent contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Publisher of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com
In the debate between science and theory discussion can become brutal. In politics, debate is often mired in cruel rhetoric and conjecture.
In this writing, I offer more conjecture than rhetoric in the hopes of stimulating discussion around the rightwing media’s use of the immigration issue to detract from the failures of the Iraq War.
THE EARLY STAGES
In the early stages of the Iraq war, America’s mainstream media embedded itself along side the invading coalition forces led by the United States. Americans were treated to news screened by the Military before it found itself on our television screens at home.
That practice eventually led to a price paid by many independent western journalists who had to take extra precautions in Iraq because of the distrust and hatred many in Iraq have for western media, which is perceived as lap dogs for American propaganda rather than journalists reporting free and unbiased.
Some of that has changed in the last year. More independent media voices are able to report more on the war without military screenings. Alternative media, such as ?Democracy Now?, have been able to reach larger audiences with detailed reports coming from the front lines of the Iraq War. As more and more of the mainstream tune in to these alternative news reports, mainstream news shows have started to report more on the failures and scandals of the war, but still do not devote as much time to the issue as they generally do with the issue of immigration.
Before 9-11, the immigration issue was under the radar. This is not to say that it was not being debated; it was an issue that did not draw as much attention as it does today.
The immigration debate before 9-11 was mostly about economics. Border security was an after thought that got little play because it was seen as a political hot potato by many in Washington.
Then, the most powerful country in the world, the United States, was attacked by a few foreign individuals who planned their carnage against Americans on our soil. The response was swift and decisive-WAR was declared against terrorists.
War was also declared against immigrants as it was learned that the terrorists were students with both legal and expired status.
Before 9-11, the immigration debate was passionate, often critical, and sometimes sympathetic. President Bush emphasized his familiarity with, and understanding of the immigration problem from his experience as governor of Texas, Mexico's neighboring state. The word immigration was not on the lips of all Americans. After September 11th all that changed.
It was a natural fit. Fighting terrorists meant protecting our borders. Many rightwing media talking heads, Lou Dobbs leading them, called for harsh remedies like sealing the border and deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants.
RIGHT WING MEDIA DETARCTS PUBLIC FROM THE WAR
Before 9-11, the World Trade Center was bombed by terrorists who had exploited our dysfunctional visa system and passed through our immigration screening procedures. Years after that bombing, little was done to prevent our system from experiencing this breakdown again.
Despite the bombing, the debate around immigration did not explode into the uproar we experience today. Why?
I argue that it’s because after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center the United States did not invade a sovereign nation. This in turn did not give rightwing media the kind of xenophobic political fodder it needed to continue the debate on immigration-though they tried.
The immigration debate took a backseat after the April 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma by ‘one of our own’. After that bombing the rightwing media had almost nothing to add credibility to their side of the immigration dispute, that is, until September 11th came along.
Rightwing media used 9-11 to restart the debate on immigration reform. After the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by Coalition Forces led by the United States, rightwing media adopted the issue in order to add credibility to their message about immigration and the war gave political staying power for their side to win the public debate.
For rightwing media types such as Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Michael Savage, Bill O’Reily, Rush Limbaugh and a host of others, 9-11 was the catalyst that got the immigration debate back on the political radar screen, and the Iraq War is the issue that is helping them win the debate by fueling racist rants filled with misinformation and fear mongering. To add to the American fear rightwing commentators amplify isolated incidents of lawlessness by a few undocumented immigrants’ despite the fact that millions have and continue to obey the law since breaking it to enter the country, they try to portray these law breakers as the norm.
The Iraq War is helping to stimulate the hateful and racist side of the immigration debate; the immigration issue is the right-wing media’s ?wag the dog? issue, which has helped to detract focus away from the War’s failures and scandals.
The rightwing media failed to follow through with detailed investigative reports of the study produced by the Iraq Study Group (ISG), in which the group states that the Bush administration has actually been filtering out the bad news in Iraq by underreporting violence in order to suit the Bush administration?s policy goals. From p.30:
Current U.S policy is not working, as the level of violence in Iraq is rising and the government is not advancing national reconciliation. Making no changes in policy would simply delay the day of reckoning at a high cost. Nearly 100 Americans are dying every month. The United States is spending $2 billion a week. Our ability to respond to other international crises is constrained. A majority of the American people are soured on the war. This level of expense is not sustainable over an extended period, especially when progress is not being made. The longer the United States remains in Iraq without progress, the more resentment will grow among Iraqis who believe they are subjects of a repressive American occupation. As one U.S. official said to us, "Our leaving would make it worse...The current approach without modification will not make it better."
Indeed, the 9-11 Commission, ISG and other respected notable authors have released book after book regarding the Bush’s administrations rush to war in Iraq on evidence, many call suspect, and others have simply labeled as lies. Yet, rightwing media dedicates most of its air time broadcasting support for the war and repeating lies about the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in this country.
Today, one can spin the dial on the radio or TV and land on some conservative commentator bashing on immigrants and defending the war effort. The public is pounded up-side the head with the idea that immigrants are a threat to our national security and economy and are this, that and the other thing. The rightwing media has used immigrants as a tool to avoid reporting the actual damage Bush and his administration has wrought our nation by recklessly waging a disastrous war that is fleecing American taxpayers and destroying our credibility around the world.
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