Planting Seeds in Foreign Media

The DoD is guilty of planting pro-U.S. stories in foreign media once again. This time, it's not Baghdad newspapers, but websites aimed at the Balkans and North Africa. I'm nearly positive you won't hear the controversy over this as opposed to the Iraqi press "propaganda," for the man who secretly ordered the website was ... (GASP!) Bill Clinton. In a cluster of nations ravaged by wars and genocide, is there a harm to plant factual stories with a pro-democracy/capitalism spin?

When we're competing with al-Jazeera, "a mouthpiece for al-Qaeda and a vehicle of anti-American propaganda," it seems only rational to spread our own factual and national "propaganda" into countries with anti-U.S. sentiments that breed suicide bombers treking their way to Iraq and other allied countries.

The only "backfire," as Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita calls it, we could face is if the foreign nations find out about our tactics through our own papers such as the L.A. Times. Oh, wait - that's what happened. I hang my head, once again, in dissapointment of the American media.