PBS to Treasury Official: 'Why Can't You Just Bomb Them?'

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Friday, November 21, 2014

by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

PBS to Treasury Official: 'Why Can't You Just Bomb Them?'

by Jim Naureckas


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PBS NewsHour correspondent Margaret Warner wants to know why the U.S. can't just bomb oil fields and refineries in Syria. (Screebgrab)
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PBS NewsHour correspondent Margaret Warner (11/18/14) had on the US Treasury official, David Cohen, who's in charge of trying to counter ISIS by cutting off its finances. But it seems like it's hard to talk to an elite media host for very long before they start fantasizing about blowing things up.

WARNER: These are essentially fixed assets, the oil fields they have taken over, the refineries they have taken over, in Iraq and Syria. Why can't you just bomb them out completely?

COHEN: I’m not a military targeter, so I don’t…

WARNER: You have enough on your plate.

COHEN: I have enough on my plate without selecting specific targets to hit. But it is absolutely the case that we’re working very closely with the Department of Defense and–in thinking about going after some of their oil resources.

Now, it's very easy for a TV host to use a phrase like "bomb them out completely"; there's no requirement, in your studio, to think about what that would look like for oil fields that contain billions of barrels of oil to be completely bombed out. Nor do you have to think about what happens to the people on the receiving end of those bombs–as the New York Times' Kareem Fahim (11/13/14) did in an exceptional piece that looked at how US airstrikes were (predictably) making the population of the Syrian city of Raqqa more sympathetic to ISIS. "Ten civilians were killed in a coalition airstrike on Sunday that hit one of the oil facilities run by the Islamic State, where many people had found work," Fahim wrote. No word on whether the facility had been bombed out "completely" or only partially in the course of killing the ten workers.

More:
http://commondreams.org/views/2014/11/21/pbs-treasury-official-why-cant-you-just-bomb-them

[Xipe Totec]

1. Tell her to go pound a fireant mound with a sledge hammer. See how well that works. nt

[Scootaloo]

3. That reminds me...

Years and years ago, just after my grandmother died, my uncle came down to Mobile with his family to help us with everything (my family being grandma' caretakers.) As Mobile, AL was ground zero for the fire ant invasion, our yard had quite a problem with the suckers. So my uncle, he decides "Hey kids, want to see how you get rid of these?"

Whenever a man in the deep south gives you a line like "hey y'all watch this," it's a good idea to seek shelter. This was no different. He takes the lawnmower's jerry can, and douses a fire and mound with gasoline. He used a handy stick to poke flame into the resulting mud of gas, dirt, and pissed ants.

FWOOMPF. The fire hits the fumes in the lower tunnels, and the whole thing poofs up in a cloud of dirt, grass, and exceptionally angry ants.

All over my uncle. Oh, the words that came out of his mouth as the realization set in, and he tried to run for the wading pool and strip out of his ant-infested clothes at the same time.

I can honestly say that this is the only lesson with philosophical merit I have ever learned from a minister.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Excellent segue! nt

[Thor_MN]

9. A very well written anecdote!!!

[Warren Stupidity]

2. We had a brief outbreak of media sanity from around 1968 - 1980.

That is over and done with. We are all Pravda now.

[Bill USA]

5. PBS is pulling out all stops on Newshour to appeal to the RW Cooks of the GOP base. Faux News Light

What's Treasury going to bomb them with, packs of old out of date United States Bonds?


missed this!

we have to keep tabs on Corporate Media and report/criticize on it. Otherwise, no hope of it getting better. At the very least we might help a few of the woefully misinformed public of how they are being duped by GOP & their M$M prostitutes.

GREAT POST. RECOMMENDED!!

[elleng]

6. She's an excellent correspondent

and analyst, and occasionally asks provocative questions to enlarge the discussion. DU and commondreams should recognize this.

[WestCoasterDude]

7. It IS a good question ......

if you think about why, actually, there are no bombs being dropped on these ISIS fund generating facilities. I suspect the answer lies in BIG OIL who actually OWNS these facilities and who actually assume that they will eventually get them back - whole, operational and fully able to generate revenues for THEM.

Think about it.......

[blkmusclmachine]

8. Bet she thinks she's doing an interview on Faux.

[Thor_MN]

10. My first thought was military question to Treasury? WTF?

But then I realized this may have been the most accurate military interview ever as the current military in the US is about funneling money to corporations.

[roamer65]

11. Sucking up to the Kochs again.