September 30, 2003
Another Day, Another Insipid Apologia
Discredited at every turn so far, the hawks have come up with another after-the-fact justification for the war on Iraq: the mainstream media are pulling the wool over Americans' eyes by not reporting the "good stuff" happening in Iraq.
Columnist John Leo, in taking up this newest cause, adduces three principle arguments.
Pre-war Iraq was a "grotesque charnel house" and a genuine threat to America, and that this was known by the media, which refused to report it, thus delaying an invasion to "halt the incredible butchery and torture".
This theory, apart from being un-related to whatever "good stuff" may be happening today, has a few holes.
First, the mainstream media were all the way on board cheering every step of the way during the months leading up to the invasion, and all the way through the duration of the war proper. (Anybody that would like to present examples to the contrary is welcome to use the comments form to do so. The mainstream media's archives are all there online, so, knock yourselves out.) It was only when American soldiers started getting picked off by Iraqi guerillas to the tune of one per day, and the associated costs of occupation began to skyrocket that the media began to put up the slightest bleats.
Second, the United States has never had a problem with butchery and torture -- indeed practices some of its own not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also on an island just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job," is the Pentagon's rule of thumb. Israel, Indonesia, Guatemala, Shah-era Iran, pre-Gulf War Iraq, El Salvador, Uzbekistan... The list of U.S. client-state "charnel houses" is, as we all very well know, very long indeed.
Third, nothing the media -- or the anti-war movement, or the United Nations, or any other actor -- did or said affected the timeline for war. The Bush Administration deployed its strike force patiently and methodically, then, when it was pleased with its military readiness, announced that Saddam had "failed to disarm", and initiated the war.
Fourth, the nature and magnitude of Saddam's internal repression would have had no bearing whatever on its threat to the outside world. This non sequitur aside, the threat to Iraq's neighbours, let alone the U.S. mainland, was zilch. This was known to the United States no later than 1995, when the State Department's favourite defector testified that all Iraqi WMD had been destroyed.
Fifth, the U.S.-as-liberator angle was not advanced until well after preparations for war had begun, and only after it became clear that the UNMOVIC inspectors were not going to be turning up any "smoking guns".
The "27 reporters left in Iraq are 'all huddled in a hotel'," so have no way of knowing what's going on inside the country.
But take Canadian reporter Chris Deliso, who spends his days walking among the people of Iraq, and who says that, "It is probably more dangerous now than at any time since US President Bush declared the war to be over," and that, "Bremer & Company are completely out of their depth in Iraq."
Or take Robert Fisk, a distinguished Middle East correspondent of some decades, who actually speaks Arabic, and who most definitely does not confine himself to a hotel room:
The fact is that months after the war was officially supposed to be over, there are hundreds of people dying in this country every week by violence. I'm just watching two Apache helicopters as I speak to you now just flying over the buildings in front of me, on 'antiterrorist patrol', as it's called. There is a real guerilla war underway here, and when you are on the ground you realize it's moving out of control.
U.S. soldiers have been sending in reports from Iraq "which have generally been positive and hopeful."
Fisk again (ibid):
What you find is that the real soldiers, I'm talking about non-reservists, full-time U.S. soldiers, they know they're involved in a guerilla war. They know it's not working. They know the place is falling to bits. What they tell me is when it gets up to the generals on your side of the lake, they don't want to admit it.
Even more telling, reports from soldiers' family members:
"Jake has been vocal about the misinformation and poor equipment and has written to Sen. Bill Nelson twice."
"I asked my son why they would need sharp-shooters on the roof if there were no Iraqis at the Airport. He said they were for the SOLDIERS! He said they were all warned that any one that went on a roof would be SHOT!"
"As I sit here and look at the American Flag, images of my husband come racing through my mind. I sit and wonder, 'What was this for?' He e-mails me everyday talking about the conditions over there. He and the other soldiers refer to Iraq as 'Hell'."
Or how about some more:
"I'm tired of reading letters telling soldiers to quit whining and do their job. People who are writing these letters have no clue as to what is going on over here."
"I don't give a damn about Rumsfeld. All I give a damn about is going home."
"We are slowly becoming frantic. I hear people saying they are going to begin hurting themselves or others if they can't go home. The helplessness our soldiers are feeling is indescribable, it is past the point of, 'Suck it up and drive on.' We just want somewhere to drive on to."
Back to the drawing board, weirdos...
Posted by Eddie Tews at September 30, 2003 04:54 PM
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