Warrior to Warrior

Vietnam veteran and author John Harriman returns to Mudville with the tenth installment of his series Warrior to Warrior, letters from a Vietnam veteran to our soldiers in Iraq. See the intro to the series here).

News to Tremble By

Dear Warrior in Iraq . . .

I promised somebody I would stop complaining about press coverage of this war. Was it you? No? Maybe it was my wife.

I tried, honest, I tried. But it's gotten to me again.

It's the drumbeat, the constant deluge of negatives.

It's so unsubtle, too.

One wire story went out of its way to tell American moms about the deaths of 22 people, including two Americans. The AP story writer felt obliged to mention strewn burning vehicles, mutilated bodies and bloodied children. No, wait, make that "bloodied school children." It's a lot of bad news to cram into one 44-word lead sentence.

The wire editor at the paper I'm quoting here wrote a five-column headline across the top of the page, "Americans among dead in violence in Iraq." Is your heart racing yet, mom? Thinking it's your son?

Then, five paragraphs into the story, just in case you've forgotten what you read 15 seconds ago, the story repeats itself: "At least 22 people were killed, including the two Americans . . . ." Who, by the way, were not soldiers. You can breathe again, dad. It's not your son.

Now forget about the further details about blood streaming down one girl's legs and another kid losing an eye in the violence. This was May 8, 2005. We wire editors just want to say: "Happy Mother's Day."

Am I saying the papers shouldn't report such news? Nah. Give it to parents and wives, day after day because in the world of news, "If it bleeds, it leads."

I get that.

What I don't get is . . . were there any positive developments in Iraq? Any at all? Ever?

Did any of the bad guys take a bullet for their cause? Any town halls get built? Any attacks thwarted?

Surely there must have been something to report, maybe as a sidebar.

Oh, wait, there was a second story that day. Just below the 22 dead including two Americans.

A nice little piece about the military investigation of 1,700 reports of sexual assault in 2004. Which, as the story dutifully reports, is up from the two previous years.

Sigh. Isn't it wonderful knowing how the papers back home feel about you? They need to report that daughters and sons live where they might well be a victim or perpetrator of a sex crime. With luck, any day now.

Remember that the next time you hear somebody in the press mention how he is against the war but supports the soldiers fighting it.

But, oh, isn't this an isolated incident? Surely.

Nope. Sorry. Checking other issues within a week of Mother's Day, you'd find more bombings, and a nice little feature that goes on at length about the recklessness of military pilots being responsible for killing other nice people in uniform. Biting your nails yet, mom? Oh, and at least two stories of the single most important event in your war, the abuses at Abu Ghraib. A week does not go by without a report on the handful of wayward criminals and negligent officers who are being cast as the face of Americans in uniform in Iraq.

The Abu Ghraib judge sends out for sandwiches? That's a story. One sentence, to be sure, but it does give the writer the chance to rehash the entire history of abuses. Let's report how many senior officers got off with reprimands. And just how many sources are calling for the secretary of Defense to resign again?

When the press's history of the War-for-Oil II is finally written, Abu Ghraib will be the shorthand term for it, just as Tet is shorthand for Vietnam, which is shorthand for everything that is wrong with America, which I'm tired of reading.

What's my problem here? Why am I so rabid about this?

Because. As a rule, one person, the wire editor, gets to choose the war news that goes inside the paper. The wire editor feeds you a constant stream of news, firehose-style, depending on his personal take on the war. Check your paper. What's his slant?

Am I telling you that the history of your service in Iraq is being written into the minds of readers by one guy who might dislike soldiers?

You bet I am.

Something else. A guy name of Arthur Chrenkoff went looking for other worthy news in Iraq in April. He found at least one story for every day. Everything from terrorist commanders surrendering to terrorist deaths to school building to oil output reaching pre-war levels (there's that War-for-Oil thing again). See for yourself.

If you didn't read it in your daily paper, now you know why. Thank your wire editor, parents.

Till next week . . .

God bless you and Godspeed.

____________

John is a veteran of two combat tours in Vietnam and a member of the American Legion. These columns are excerpts from an upcoming book. His current book, Delta Force #1 : Operation Michael's Sword is a fictional account of the 9/11 attacks and the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom.