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Warrior to Warrior

Insensibly reporting the war in Iraq
by James V. Smith
The Shelby Promoter
Thursday, March 24, 2005

Dear Warrior from Montana,

I've been writing that the press doesn't "get" soldiers. Heck, even our friends don't always get us. GOP Adviser Karl Rove recently thanked the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth for helping turn back Sen. John Kerry's bid for President.

Rove told Fox News, "I was really amazed by how strongly men and women who had served in Vietnam and in the armed forces felt about (Kerry and his anti-war activities)."

Mr. Rove? Say again? You were amazed that many Vietnam veterans would rise up against Mr. Kerry? After he had painted us all as war criminals guilty of routine atrocities?

You were amazed that the constant drumbeat of Vietnam shame in the media from the 1960s till even now might upset us?

To borrow a phrase my youngest uses on me: Mr. Rove, get a clue.

I'm not against an anti-war opinion. I've had one a time or two in my own life. An opinion is a right that soldiers fight for.

The trouble arises in the press, I think, when the anti-war opinion is disguised as news. And then the press hoses us down with it nonstop.

Take this little test next time you get access to the Internet. The day I wrote this letter, I Googled a couple terms in Google News. The first term was "Iraq elections." The news stories totaled 6,600, meaning that many news stories were linked to Google. All Google Web mentions were 400,000.

The second term was "abu Ghraib." News stories, 8,660. All Web mentions, 1,070,000. So. I'm not wrong in thinking that the press has been yammering nonstop about abu Ghraib, after all.

Let's be clear. The abuses of prisoners at abu Ghraib were abominations by a dozen or so soldiers (of the total of 135,000 in Iraq). I make no excuses of any kind. Punish the guilty, I say. Crack heads.

On the other hand. How is the anomaly of that criminal behavior there so wildly more popular in the news than free elections?

Here's my answer. By definition, if you hate war, you focus on the bad things that come of it. And brother, I know that war has more than a fair share of bad sides. Who doesn't hate war? It's often said that every soldier finds God in a foxhole. You can add to that a sudden, intense anti-war feeling.

And, granted, little good comes of war, as a rule, until the fighting is over and the rebuilding begins and ends. Witness Japan, Germany and Afghanistan.

But does that mean you minimize any good news? Well, yes, if you're an anti-war reporter anyhow. Because to print positive news is somehow to put a positive spin on war. Which is to diminish your own cherished position.

That's why the yammer about abu Ghraib never ends, just as the My Lai massacre in Vietnam is always on the tip of an anti-war tongue. I mean, who can defend My Lai or Abu Ghraib? Not me. Not you. So. We get a constant stream of bad news in that vein until people back home begin to believe nothing but bad news can come of war. Until more and more people become anti-war. Which then becomes a story of itself, created by the drumbeat.

It has always been so. Even in George Washington's day. He was a champion of the causes of the Indian nations in his time. But he failed to help them, in part because they got nothing but bad press.

"(Indians), poor wretches, have no press thro' which their grievances are related," Washington wrote, "and it is well known, that when one side only of a story is heard, and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it, insensibly."

Insensibly. Which is to say that the drumbeat can take the place of truth; that people can accept it as truth without critical thinking. Scary, huh?

Till next week . . . God bless you and Godspeed.

Contact: jamesvsmithjr@hot-mail.com The author is a veteran of two combat tours in Vietnam and a member of the American Legion. These columns are excerpts from a book of the same title to be given free to every Montana service member in Iraq. The author invites all veterans to submit tips or anecdotes to help our men and women in uniform. All funds from sales of the Montana book go to printing and to the Veterans Memorial Flag project of Montana. Contact the author for info on that project.

The Shelby Promoter