[Helmling]

Ok, now seriously, for a newswire item, this is terribly slanted:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe...eut/index.html

"Withering" attack, and "so-called" war on terror. I mean, this is almost as bad as the overt right-wing bias you find on American cable news.

[red rocket]

Not really.

withering
adj
(of a remark, look, etc) scornful or glaring and intended to humiliate
Thesaurus: snubbing, scathing, scornful, devastating, mortifying, humiliating, deadly, murderous, wounding; Antonym: supportive.

Allwords.com Definition of withe

(1.) Use of "withering" seems acceptable: Blair did use the word "madness", after all, and he also used the "anti-Americanism" charge - quite extravagantly, I thought.

(2.) "War on terror" certainly deserves the "so-called" qualifier; it is merely a populist phrase, after all.

[hyteckit]

Thank God! I thought the liberal media was dead.

[itai195]

'so-called' isn't necessarily a derisive term, though it has an alternative definition that is. I think the term is a victim of our cynical and sarcastic times

[subego]

Originally Posted by itai195

'so-called' isn't necessarily a derisive term, though it has an alternative definition that is. I think the term is a victim of our cynical and sarcastic times

OT: Nice sig!

Props and a raise to the photographer, twice if that person is you!

[voodoo]

Realist:

There is a great difference to seeing the USA as a strategic ally and an important business-partner as they are and to be kissing the behind of the US president like Blair has been doing since he took office.

Blairist (replying to the above):

It's a common line of attack on Blair, and it's complete and utter nonsense. Blair's belief system about the world was in place long before Bush took office; do some research, he was talking about interventionism in the manner of the last five years long before. In many respects, Blair has always wanted to go further than Bush. It was Blair who was prepared to commit 50,000 British troops to a ground invasion of Kosovo in the teeth of American opposition, Blair who wanted to topple Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Now, you can say he is wrong, you can say he is misguided, but this facile "poodle" stuff is plain wrong.

And by the way, there seems to be a re-writing of history by some people with regards to Afghanistan. Iraq is an entirely separate issue to it, and all NATO countries have a responsibility to stabilising Afghanistan, yet countries like Spain refuse to have any part of it. Germany's unique history understandbly prevents them from becoming more involved, but they have at least committed troops to the quieter parts of the country. In the south, it is Canadian, British, American and Dutch troops who are doing the fighting, whilst most of NATO refuses to fulfill its obligations.

V

[itai195]

Originally Posted by subego

OT: Nice sig!

Props and a raise to the photographer, twice if that person is you!

Can't take the credit, I stole it from the US Mint.