http://en.cubadebate.cu/reflections-fidel/2012/05/16/horrible-things-that-empire-offers-us/ Cubadebate, Against Terrorism in the Media Mon, 02 Aug 2021 13:59:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1 http://en.cubadebate.cu/reflections-fidel/2012/05/16/horrible-things-that-empire-offers-us/#comment-895 Sat, 19 May 2012 18:00:05 +0000 http://en.cubadebate.cu/?p=2914#comment-895 Very good points and another angle of this issue is the way these heinous acts are portrayed by American news outlets. American mass media is incapable or unwilling to provide alternative perspectives, like perhaps debating the viability of the war on drugs or addressing the root of these problems at all. Americans are overwhelmingly given the impression that these acts(and most acts of violence in the world) are portrayed by nihilistic, godless killers. I am no defender of the drug cartels but their acts of violence are acts of war, to fight for control and to make a point that the Mexican government cannot fight their illegal drug trade with arms or with their failed war on drugs. People who become drug traffickers or join cartels or gangs do so out of necessity or out of a perceived opportunity for personal advancement which is so often denied them in other fields. Just as our media has dehumanized “terrorists”, it dehumanizes the perpetrators of these crimes. American news networks will not question these failed policies. They will only report the violence and give Americans the impression that the war is perpetrated by the “barbarians ” and cannot be solved by simple policy changes like perhaps demilitarizing the struggle against drug trade. Mr. Reagan, Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama and Mr. Calderon can change the laws and declare war against drugs as many times as they like but they will never undo the law of supply and demand.

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