You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Village Gives Sons to Lebanon Army
2007-08-04
BIBNEEN, Lebanon (AP) - In the unkempt cemetery of this hilltop town lie six of Lebanon's young soldiers, killed in battles with Islamist militants in a Palestinian refugee camp not far away.

Three months of fighting at the Nahr el-Bared camp has for the first time made the military popular in Lebanon - but for impoverished towns like Bibneen, the army has long been a way of life and a source of income for youth who otherwise can find no work.

The toll paid by Bibneen is evident at its cemetery. "Do not count as dead those killed for the sake of God, for they are alive with their Lord," reads a Quranic verse carved into the six soldiers' tombstones, standing amid the weeds and litter. A seventh Bibneen resident killed in the battle is buried in the nearby city of Tripoli.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  Steve - maybe you are right and I have just become too cynical. But to me this just follows the exact format of every single, solitary NPR piece. They go like this:

1. It was a dark and stormy night - the mood is set, be it in a local school or in the hills of Afghanistan or busy city of Lebanon. Lots of adjectives and soothing background music.

2. Meet X - in this case, Walid. You know - the Joe normal we can all relate to. Usually, as in this story, Walid will have a family member or friend standing by to give him depth.

3. About this time we get the "clanging pots" as I call them. A series of NPR sound effects that usually include the interviewer starting an interview with the interviewee. This will fade to the back and the translator or the narrator will voice-over them. Most favored sounds are children playing, women talking as they clang pots in the kitchen. Each piece will have sound effects specific to the piece, for example - if it is about school lunches - you will get cafeteria sounds - or a war zone, you will hear shooting mortars, etc.

4. The Truth(TM) that feeds the lie. In this case, the fact that we revere the sacrifice of sons who must fight for freedom. The Truth(TM) is most often centered around mother-hood/apple pie and the children; the benefit of education; the pain of loss or poverty; the power of hope; the unquenchable nature of the human spirit - etc., etc.

5. After examining the happy surface, it is now time to look just beneath to see the dark evil that is hiding there - because every single NPR piece can be summed up thus "UNDERNEATH EVERY HAPPY SURFACE LIES DARKNESS.

In this case - the dark and sinister is that these peaceful fishermen really don't want to fight for freedom - they just want to fish. And it is so sad, such a waste, they might as well go home because resistance is futile!

I could go on...but you get the point.
Posted by: AT   2007-08-04 22:08  

#3  Hmmm, gotta say, I didn't read the article that way. I thought the article was pretty positive in tone regarding the soldiers. It's the sort of article one could write about young men in the American south who join the Army or Marines because that's what Dad and Grandpa did in their time.

I saw it as honoring these men for their service to a greater good, that is, a country that would be worth having.
Posted by: Steve White   2007-08-04 12:02  

#2  This exemplifies the "resistance-is-futile-surrender-to-the-terrorists" meme.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-08-04 06:56  

#1  Typical NPR-esque boilerplate trash.

Young men from Bibneen and other Sunni towns and villages of northern Lebanon form the backbone of the force that is waging the army's drawn-out, two-month fight in the Palestinian camp.

poor, widdle soldier's only join the military because they are dumb, impoverished, "youth" who can otherwise find no work due to the fact that evil war prevents them from fishing peacefully and living in perfect harmony. And, of course, despite the fact that the army appears, on the happy surface, to have high moral and be a symbol of increasing nationalist unity, every one who is anyone knows that "frustration is starting to mount as the fighting drags on" in a "drawn-out, two-month [!] fight".

gag. It only needs the sound effects of babies crying, women wailing, and clanking pots to be complete.
Posted by: AT   2007-08-04 04:05  

00:00