Les USA conduits par Obama : panique à bord

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Les USA conduits par Obama : panique à bord

Pour compléter une précédente contribution sur les USA comme “a burlesque of an empire” (lien: http://www.dedefensa.org/article-les_usa_conduits_par_ben_laden_a_burlesque_of_an_empire__12_01_2010.html), une référence à un article paru le 6 janvier 2010 dans Salon.News (lien: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/01/06/failed_terror_plot/index.html).

L’article de Gene Lyons examine comment les médias terrorisent les Américains, cela à propos de l’“attentat manqué” du vol 253. Mais le point essentiel à mon sens est que cet effet, dans la majorité des cas, répond au conformisme médiatique, au goût du sensationnel, bref à toutes les lois et contraintes de la communication. Cela marche au quart de tour, bien plus qu’une opération de mise en condition montée en tant que telle.

«No one can say how America's struggle with Islamic extremism will end, save that it won't be resolved by having Matt Damon kill Osama bin Laden in single combat. And President Obama won't yell “Get off my plane!” before tossing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to his death. However this conflict ends, Bruce Willis will not be involved.

»Most Americans understand that the long battle against al-Qaida and related terrorist groups has little in common with a Hollywood plot. Or at least I hope they do. Watching excitable media personalities and the Chicken Little wing of the Republican Party doing everything possible to turn the failed Christmas airline bombing in Detroit into a combination Super Bowl-size ratings bonanza and political opportunity, however, made me wonder: Can't these jokers be serious about anything?

»TV news broadcasters dote upon melodrama. The fact that would-be Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab struck on Christmas Day, one of the slowest news days of the year, sent the media into overdrive. For CNN, Fox News and the rest, the catastrophe that blessedly didn't happen spurred them to do what they do best: gather a terrific amount of information in a short time and inform us about what happened aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 – and, equally important, what didn't, such as a coordinated attack by multiple terrorists.

»(Was I the only one who wondered whether the heroism of Dutch tourist Jasper Schuringa, who threw himself on Abdulmutallab, preventing the bomb in his pants from detonating, got relatively short shrift because he wasn't an American?) […]

»Things like invading Iraq, resorting to using torture, abandoning the rule of law and demanding authoritarian solutions that provide a false sense of security to people quivering with media-amplified fear. Such as Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney's demand on (where else?) Fox News that all Muslim men between ages 18 and 28 be strip-searched before boarding airplanes. Only the cravenly politically correct, he thinks, could object.

»McInerney's idea sounds appropriately tough-minded for the approximately five seconds needed to realize that Muslims come in all possible shapes, sizes and colors, but without labels. Maybe we should just strip-search everybody – ex-Pentagon officials first.

»A Washington Post columnist demanded an immediate end to Obama's vacation. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews worried what would happen if al-Qaida started dispatching bombers trained in martial arts. (Maybe we'll need to deploy Matt Damon's stunt double after all.) Scared witless, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called for Obama to muster more after-the-fact excitement, lamenting the alleged disappearance (I am not making this up) of America's “Bugs Bunny panache.” Really.»

Le flâneur