 |
Readers' CornerOmbudsman Dave Mazzarella answers reader questions about Stars and Stripes. |
Column: Regarding Iraq, just what is the media’s message?
Posted March 20th, 2007 by Dave MazzarellaHow fair have the media been in covering the Iraq war? Are the nation’s premier newspapers and television networks hellbent on declaring this war lost, or have they acted like lapdogs of the administration? They have been accused of both.
What’s more recent is discussion of Stars and Stripes’ role in all this, a discussion with the added dimension that Stripes is a newspaper of the Department of Defense — although one that is editorially independent.
Casualty Reporting
There is an argument for reporting only the good things happening in American interest in the wars. There is the other side saying report the reality of the wars; show the dead bodies, the funerals, provide more on the lives and numbers of Iraqi civilian casualties. It’s these boundaries of reporting that the media seems to be trying to avoid. They raise questions about propaganda and censorship.
Events often cause me to reconsider these questions. Most recently I’ve been thinking about the apparent inequity in how we (Americans) value life. I realized how the enemy can use that against us.
They see that we are traumatized by the single instance murder of 32 Americans but aren’t fazed when 200 Iraqis are blown away. They know how precious each American life is to us. The key for them is not how many Iraqis they kill, but how many Americans. Trading two suicide bombers for nine Americans GIs is another major step towards breaking American will. These mini-triumphs are also recruiting tools for more suicide bombers, not just in Iraq but elsewhere in the world.
Is the media providing support to the enemy by over-reporting our concern for American casualties? Is the answer, giving less press attention to American causalities? Should we try to convince the enemy that we don’t consider our deaths to be that a big deal? Should we tell them again to "bring it on?"
The flip side to our compassion for our fallen GIs is the callousness some have encouraged us to have towards the countless non-combatant Iraqi victims. Just recently, the Stars and Stripes "humor" columnist, Ann Coulter, in an interview on JewishPress.com, when asked, "What should America’s policy be in Iraq?" she said:
America’s policy should be to obliterate any remnant of terrorism in Iraq with whatever force is necessary, and to do so with alacrity. Then it’s on to Iran! I’m proposing a two-part plan, the second part of which is, "Let God sort them out."
There’s a real belly laugh, huh? She sure has a knack for comedy. Who needs Don Imus? Let’s thrill in their deaths and ours.
We have had this war wrong from the beginning
...and not for the whiny reasons liberals would give us.
The biggest mistake we have made in this war is allowing good kids to be killed by following "rules" while cowards and barbarians who don't follow any continue to run amok in Iraq.
The last time I looked, and I am a retired Vietnam and Gulf War vet decorated 26 times, when a military force goes to war, the objective is to CRUSH your enemy and minimize casualties.
Bush's greatest crime has been that he is a lousy commander-in-chief. I had no problem with invading Iraq, but the post-war planning was a disaster for myriad reasons, most of which are clear in hindsight. But we wouldn't have half the problems we have today if the rest of the (also basically cowardly) world had joined in and SECURED THAT BORDER right after the USA did the heavy lifting (as usual), and if we had thrown away the Geneva Conventions and literally hammered these irregular terrorists AND THOSE WHO HARBOR THEM.
Winning wars is easy with superiority of forces. Ask, Genghis Khan, ask LeMay, ask Sherman, ask Patton..they would all understand. USE your power to defend your people/assets and accomplish the mission. Give the media something to suck besides their thumbs and keep them out of the combat zone.
In response to "We have had this war wrong from the beginning"
Throw away the Geneva Convention? I think we tried that at Abu Ghraib amongst other places. And I wonder how many more acts of terrorism that killed our soldiers that little “throw-away” inspired?
By the way, it seems to me it’s the conservatives who have the edge on whining. They whine about the media, they whine about civil liberties, they whine about the “cowardly” international community, they whine that we haven’t unleashed the full wrath of our military might. Whine, whine, whine… Hell, they even had to invent their own dictionary to validate their whiny little alternate reality.
Concerning LeMay, his strategic bombing would have been wholly inappropriate in Iraq. It was not that kind of campaign. He also miscued big during the Cuban Missile Crises with his pro-war enthusiasm, which almost got us into an all-out nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union. And didn’t he join George Wallace as a running mate in a 1968 presidential bid whose platform included pro-segregation (blacks shouldn’t vote, serve on juries, or hold public office, etc)? I think LeMay’s judgment is questionable.