Calamities of war: TV coverage is all boom-boom-boom, light and smoke—but no human faces

National Catholic Reporter, April 4, 2003 by Raymond A. Schroth

Within seven days the most mediaized war in history went from illusion to reality, from the long-cherished dream of "decapitating" Saddam Hussein and all his top generals in one swift swipe to a weekend of calamities, only some of which could have been foreseen.

The decision to seize the opportunity to assassinate Saddam, as swirl retribution for having snubbed our president's offer to let him scoot out of Baghdad within 48 hours, was portrayed as a marvel of espionage, communication and quick thinking on our part. Proof that the CIA can track Saddam's moves, have the president sign the assassination order at 6:30 p.m. and fire the smart missiles from ships off Qatar right to Saddam's dinner table or toilet seat.

For a week we scrutinize his mug shots on CNN--one puffy-faced with glasses, the other darker and younger-looking, but maybe ... Who knows? Wounded? Why do his glasses match those of Tariq Aziz? Borrowed? Maybe it is Tariq with a rubber Saddam mask? Shell-shocked?

Could we have failed?

As late as Monday night, March 24, responding to that day's TV appearance, the administration is still wondering whether Saddam is alive. Maybe he taped a series of all-purpose speeches weeks before the war. So much for CIA sources.

If he was not in the targeted house, we have repeated the Afghan-istan response. One of our informants tells us that the Taliban are having tea in a village, and we send drones or helicopters or B52s to wipe them out-only to wipe out an innocent village wedding party and earn the hatred of everyone who remembers our strike.

The media/Pentagon alliance had promised "Shock and Awe," an unprecedented bombardment of Bagh dad--though carefully calibrated to avoid "collateral damage"--that would knock their socks off, wake them up to the advantages of surrender.

In an interview with Poynter Online, New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges compares "Shock and Awe" to the deceptions of Orwellian Newspeak. It tens us that Baghdad will be shocked and awed, while "what they're going to be is dismembered, eviscerated, and killed."

"Shock and Awe" weighs in for about a day, with those glorious nighttime pyrotechnics that light up the sky, reminding the basic American TV viewer of a July 4 blowout or the last seconds of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie in which bad guys get what they deserve.

At no time is the notion that on-the-spot TV coverage gives us the "truth" more absurd. All boom-boom-boom, light and smoke. Not one glimpse of a human face. Are there people? CNN, FOX, MSNBC and the networks haven't found them.

Rumsfeld is indignant Thursday when a reporter compares the bombing to World War II. We match weapons to targets, he says. We have carefully not hit Baghdad's water or electricity-because we're humane. Rumsfeld concludes every interview that week, no matter what the question, with a schoolmasterish command to the Iraqi army to surrender. The regime is "history," he tells them. You're done for. Quit. Quit.

He refers to "the coalition" of 45-plus countries who back us. There are Polish troops in the field. Analysts read the list of supporters and laugh. I switch channels and pick up a BBC report: Rumsfeld can't possibly know what he's talking about. There's no way this bombardment is not killing civilians.

Later another BBC reporter seems to back Rumsfeld. Baghdad had reported more than 200 casualties. The wounded she visited in the hospital, she says, were hit by falling shrapnel from antiaircraft fire. In short, it was their fault.

Chris Hedges advises journalists that they won't ever see civilian casualties. "That's part of their plan."

Unless you're Robert Fisk. Star British correspondent Robert Fisk, of The Independent (March 24) had visited the same hospital. Rumsfeld, he writes, should talk to 5-year-old Doha Suheil. The cruise missile had exploded next to her suburban home and blasted shrapnel into her legs and spine. She cannot move her leg. She was the first of 101 patients that night.

Fisk moves from bed to bed. Whole families wounded in the legs, face and chest. He hears of the British radio reporter who asked the doctor. Couldn't it be the fault of the antiaircraft guns?

Fisk asks: "Should we laugh or cry at this?"

Rumsfeld brags, says Fisk, that we have not destroyed power plants and water works. Of course not, he replies. Because the Americans will need lights, water and a phone system when they rule Iraq.

Then the weekend. Helicopters crash or are shot down--a standard war tragedy for which no one can be blamed. When I was a Fordham ROTC cadet about to go on active duty, our instructor told us that helicopters were, by definition, very dangerous. "Co up in them," he said, "and you're going to get cooked." Nothing has changed in 50 years.

A black Muslim sergeant with an "attitude problem" frails his commander's tent with three grenades and kills one comrade. In the southern towns where we expected to be welcomed with bouquets and belly dancers, they're fighting back. Basra has been without power and water for days. Iraqis "surrender" and are allowed to go home, and show up later as fighters. Our Patriot missile shoots down a British plane.