Telling the Story
April 3, 2003
by Joe Sobran
This being a "war of choice," rather than a war
forced on us by urgent necessity (as it is for Iraq),
can't we at least ask for candor about the cost? I don't
mean only in American blood and treasure, important as
they are, but in Iraqi casualties, both military and
civilian.
We deserve something more than propaganda. If our
government is going to make us bitter enemies, we have a
right to know that. This war is being fought in our name,
and we are going to pay for it -- in more ways than one.
Many hawks feel that free speech ends at the water's
edge. (Not that they're crazy about it on our own
shores.) They are furious at Sean Penn for saying in Iraq
what he had an unquestioned right to say in America, even
though the war hadn't started yet. They are doubly
furious at Peter Arnett for saying what he thought in
Iraq once the United States had started bombing. American
journalists are supposed to be "embedded" in the war
effort, observing "message discipline." That is, they are
expected to stop practicing journalism without a
government-issued license.
In war, the adage has it, truth is the first
casualty. But if your cause is just, why do you need lies
and concealment? If your troops are fighting for freedom
-- including "Iraqi freedom" -- why not allow events to
be reported freely? If you are sitting at home, cheering
the war while watching it on television, shouldn't you at
least be willing to face what you're supporting? Or does
the war have to be edited for family viewing?
The hawks are suspicious of the American news media,
which they feel aren't parroting war propaganda with due
zeal. In their eyes, even frank reporting, if it
contradicts official optimism, amounts to treason.
According to the fanatical NEW YORK POST, the NEW YORK
TIMES is a "fifth column" of the enemy. Yet any serious
reader knows which paper to read for dispassionate
information, and which paper reduces journalism to a bad
joke.
Never mind that without frank reporting the freedom
of the press is meaningless. If this is really a war for
freedom, ours as well as Iraq's, why shouldn't we
exercise our own freedoms? I'm afraid the answer is all
too obvious.
The American media are the least of the hawks'
problems. They should be worrying about the foreign
media, especially the Arab network Al-Jazeera. The
American media are showing a serial that might be called
"Brave American Soldiers." The Arab media are showing a
different story: "Dead and Maimed Arab Women and
Children." And that's the one most of the world is
watching. The U.S. global media monopoly is over.
The Bush administration doesn't seem to grasp this.
It expects the world to accept its rigid and lame self-
justifications, and is utterly unprepared for the
propaganda war that may be more decisive in the long run
than what happens in battle. Perception may not be
reality, but it's certainly an important reality,
especially in the Media Age, and it's out of the U.S.
Government's control.
Which story is true? In a war that isn't decisive.
It isn't the righteous side that prevails, but the side
with the more powerful weapons, and in the contest for
world opinion, the Arab story is far more powerful than
the American story. Pictures of dead children can't be
counteracted by pictures of nice Marines carrying live
children. Pictures of dead American children killed by
Iraqis might help, but there aren't any.
When, 40 years ago, the young Cassius Clay (now the
beloved old Muhammad Ali) challenged the thuggish Sonny
Liston for the world heavyweight championship, he was so
cocky and abrasive that one sportswriter quipped, "Clay
has achieved the unlikely feat of making Liston the
sentimental favorite."
Similarly, George W. Bush has achieved the unlikely
feat of making the brutal Saddam Hussein the sentimental
favorite in the Arab world and beyond. Like his hero
Stalin, Hussein knows how to enlist the passions of
nationalism when he needs them. An invasion always helps.
Our own media are barely reporting this media war.
But if the United States wins on the ground, yet winds up
isolated in a hostile world, what will it have gained?
A happy ending depends on who's telling the story.
And America isn't the world's storyteller anymore.
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