Falluja and the Uncle Sam

The blog world generated an absurd Kerfluffle over Kos saying "so what" to the Falluja killings of four American contractors/mercenaries/whatever. Out there in the real world where things actually matter, this Knight Ridder story reports that the general Arab response has been... "So what?": "While the horrific killings Wednesday in the restive town of Fallujah outraged Americans and prompted the U.S.-led coalition to vow an "overwhelming" response, the incident barely registered in the Middle East, where the big news was an Enrique Iglesias concert in Egypt. The dead contractors were largely forgotten. "Who cares?" said Fida Alsha'er, a columnist for a Jordanian women's magazine. "It's another example of how American life is considered something very expensive, very important, while the Arab life is worth nothing.""

For me, though, the highlight of the story was this: "The Uncle Sam restaurant sits in the heart of Amman, the Jordanian capital, and its sign is all-American red, white and blue. But that's where the kinship with the United States ends. Tamer, a 24-year-old waiter who wouldn't give his last name, watched Egyptian soap operas at the cafe Saturday instead of western channels that featured persisting questions of when the United States would retaliate. "It's not good to celebrate mutilation, but Iraq is an Arab country under American occupation," Tamer said with a shrug. "Iraqis have the right to fight back."" What's funny isn't the sentiment, or anything - it's the choice of the "Uncle Sam restaurant." Because, as anyone who has lived in Amman knows, the Uncle Sam is a rather seedy bar right next door to the Intercontinental on the Third Circle, which is a luxury hotel where many Western journalists like to stay. Now that's research - the reporter made it all the way to the Uncle Sam! Doesn't invalidate the findings of the story, but it's pretty darn telling as to the depth of the investigative work.

By the way, the article also points out that "the two most-watched Arab satellite channels, al Arabiya and al Jazeera, showed unusual restraint Wednesday in their treatment of the images." Don't expect al Jazeera to get any credit for its restraint, though. That's not the way these "working the refs" things go - if al Jazeera shows restraint, then American intimidation worked; if it doesn't, then it's the enemy.