Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103100320
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Indeed, some members of Jordan's anti-American glee club were so dazed when Saddam ordered his troops to withdraw from Kuwait that they called news offices in Amman to make sure the radio report was true.
"This is a trick. Someone is imitating the voice of Saddam. It can't be him saying he wants to withdraw," Mohammed Sairouti, who placed such a call, told Reuters.
Hard to believe that people can be so impervious to the facts, isn't it?
And yet, here in the United States, many Americans have been quick, in their own fashion, to tune out reports they haven't liked. When faced with news or opinions to which they object, these self-styled patriots too quickly blame the messenger.
Of course, there has been lots to criticize in news coverage, especially TV news, especially CNN. There were hours featuring reporters standing around waiting for Scuds to fall. Cameras could show Iraqi civilian casualties, but none in Kuwait.
The pundits have been knee-deep in pessimism; somehow so-called experts seem to have felt it's better to predict the worst (at least if you're wrong, you can look magnanimous acknowledging your error.)
I think CNN should have been tougher with Baghdad: It should have told Saddam's toadies that unless they allowed Peter Arnett to roam and speak more freely, Ted Turner would pull the plug. And they should have been ready to carry out that threat.
Nonetheless, I take issue with those who turned off their sets and then boasted about it. Sure, Arnett showed what Iraq wanted the world to see. And, yes, I got sick of his naive assurances that different sites didn't look like they had a military use - as if the goon squad hadn't had time to make that location over.
But because I knew what Arnett's limitations were, I didn't believe, or disbelieve, everything I saw and heard. Nor was I so arrogant as to assume that maybe I could see through his stories, but other people might not.
Sure, news conferences were littered with dumb questions. It's not easy asking questions when you're covering a war but aren't allowed to probe into tactics and maneuvers. So what are reporters supposed to do - not ask?
No. It is the military's job to fight the war, not dispense information, and it's the reporters' role to bring the story to the public.
Be glad reporters were over there. Sooner or later, the facts about the war must come out, that is, if America is to fully understand this war. And the only entity ready to take on that formidable task is the press.
It also has fallen to the press, especially newspaper opinion pages, to air different views.
Understand: I supported the president. And while I defend the right of dissenters to protest the war, I also enjoyed ridiculing their feeble philosophy. And yet I found myself over the months arguing with newspaper readers who didn't believe anti-war columns should run along with pro-war columns.
Their attitude showed a sad lack of faith in the moral force of Bush's policy. They revealed a willingness to forgo precious freedoms, even as troops were fighting to liberate Kuwait.
Such calls reminded me of a passage in "Republic of Fear," a chilling book on Saddam's Iraq by an Iraqi refugee who calls himself Samir al-Khalil. Al-Khalil quoted a writer on Arab nationalism who mused that Egyptians had better freedom under Nasser than "in the days of the monarchy, political parties, of the Constitution, and the freedom of the press; when everything was permitted, but everything had its price."
Freedom has its price, including license. And even during time of war, when countries use national security as a reason to abrogate rights, the burden of freedom still has its price.
Censorious Americans should take a note from Iraq. Iraqis who distrusted intellectuals and journalists wanted to curb freedom of speech; people encouraged the press to censor itself. Slowly, access to information was stripped away. Foreign publications were banned; government owned the newspapers and television stations. In 1982, the Iraqi government stopped publishing casualty figures in the Iran-Iraq war.
During this war, there was a country that withheld military information and kept the press in line. That country was Iraq, and I'm glad I live in the one that showed Saddam what for.
by CNB