steph- "iran blames us for iraq terror"

Stephanie Kollmer
I. "Iran Blames US for Iraq 'terror'"
BBC News
March 3, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7274199.stm

II. Summary: The American government's attitude towards the Middle East is promoting the idea that Iranians are supporting Iraq's terrorism and military. The Iranian president recently visited Iraq for the first time, and throughout conversations between the Iraqi and Iranian government officials, they blamed the US for bringing terrorism into their region. The Middle East wants Washington to be more positive towards them and to understand that "Iraqi people don't like America."

III. Reactions:
a) This article relates to the AP theme "impact of interaction among and within major societies," because it is dealing with the impact of the relationship between the Middle East and the US. Iran is saying that terrorism is present in Iraq because of the United State's impact on them. There is a lot of conflicts among these two regions because of the interaction between them. Iran doesn't think that the US understands how Iraq feels about them, yet they want the US to stop accusing them of being terrorists. Iran wants the US to admit that they are really the terrorists.

b) Because of the War on Terror in Iraq, there has been tension between the Middle East and the US for many years. The two regions have rarely gotten along in the past, and they probably won't get along until the war ends. The US and the Middle East have been back and forth accusing each other of terrorism, since the beginning of the war.

c) The source of the article is a British newspaper, but although the reporters are more or less outsiders, they seem to often report the Middle Eastern point of view over the American, which at times show bias against Americans.

d) The main reason that I thought this article showed some bias was the fact that the reporter seemed to report more of the Iranian point of view than the American point of view. There are more quotes from the Iranian president than the American president, and the only quote from George Bush was telling Iraq to stop sending in equipment that is killing American citizens, which shows that he is not admitting to terrorising their nation, which is what the Iranian president believes. There also seemed to be a strong emphasis on the fact that Iraqi people don't like Americans.

e) I think that there could have been a more complete point of view from the American government, because as I said before, the reporter included only one side of Bush's opinion. It also would have been interesting to hear from an Iraqi citizen that does not agree with their government, because this article mentioned that there were some people who don't agree with their government.

f) I thought that this was an interesting article because I think that tension between the Middle East and the US is an interesting topic that is extremely relevant to today. I think that it was interesting how the Iranian president said that Iraqis just don't like Americans. I think that that is really judgemental, but I can see why they would at times not like the Americans in their country. I think that it is important to try to understand the opinions of both the Americans, and the Iraqis because the war between the two is one of the biggest issues in the news lately, and an understanding of both opinions is crucial to the understanding of the conflict.