It’s been a month today since terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon, and now it’s a two-way war, the U.S. is shooting back. The raids so far have been remarkably successful, according to the newspapers. Military targets are being wiped out and very little collateral damage. There were those four workers on contract to the United Nations, hired to clear landmines and wound up being killed by an American bomb. Who says the age of irony is over?
So everything seems to be going well, but who knows for sure? There is a dearth of reliable sources. The Taliban says there have been civilian deaths, but what does that mean? What’s a civilian to the Taliban? A Pashtun male whose beard is sufficiently long? If a thousand Afghan women were killed, would the Taliban notice? Would they bother to count?
On the American side, all information is filtered through the Department of Defense. All the targets were hit, civilian casualties were few, we are told. Food was dropped. But is that the whole story? The Washington Post reported Tuesday that 17 news organizations were told on Friday the fifth to have reporters and camerapeople ready to go overseas. That’s how all those reports rolled in from aircraft carriers and cruise missile destroyers. That’s how Tom Brokaw came to be wearing an appropriately serious and sober tie on Sunday afternoon. They knew it was coming and they kept it a secret. News outlets are complying with the military’s request to keep the anonymity of sailors and pilots, relying instead on the noms de guerre of radio call signs. The eyewitnesses of the bombing of Kabul were identified in major newspapers as “Woodstock,” “Vinny,” “Stinky,” “Doc,” “Beacon” and “Biff.” Who says the age of satire is over?
It is said the military is always fighting the last war. The same may be true for the media and the public. During the Gulf War, we were told all the smart bombs hit their targets, the Patriot missiles were extraordinarily effective, Saddam Hussein’s scuds were duds. Years later, in congressional hearings, it came out that it just wasn’t so. The Defense Department lied to the American public in the Gulf War, in Panama, in Grenada, in Vietnam. They’ve lied about missile defense, the F-22, the Osprey, the B-1, the B-2 and the $200 toilet seats. Sometimes the American media exposes this; sometimes, like last weekend, it plays along. They say they’re being patriotic, but really, they just don’t want to lose their access. Power corrupts, and proximity to power corrupts, too. Now the Bush White House is reluctant to share information even with Congress and some are trying to gag the Voice of America.
All that baggage, 35 years of lies and distrust, no wonder we’re fighting the last war when we hear news reports from the front. Maybe this war is different. Maybe, because of what happened a month ago today, the American public is more supportive of this war, more supportive than we ever were of Panama or Grenada. Maybe the generals feel secure enough about the homefront that they don’t feel the need to overstate the successes and understate the collateral damage. On the other hand, maybe the Pentagon is putting a positive spin on the news to keep the international coalition intact, especially to reassure Muslim nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Is this a just war? After three decades of lies and deceit from the military, from the politicians, from the defense contractors, the very notion of a just war is hard for some sectors of the American public to wrap its mind around. Yes, we were attacked and innocent people were killed, but I don’t doubt for a moment that General Electric and Martin Marietta will use the recent surge in patriotism to raid the treasury – again – or that self-serving politicians will use this as an excuse to limit civil liberties, the very freedoms we say we are fighting to defend.
I now have a better understanding of why the generation born in the 20s and 30s were so dismayed by Vietnam era anti-war protests. The Second World War and Korea had conditioned them to believe all American wars are just, the same way my generation has learned from our experience that American wars are seldom just.
The War We Know
It’s been a month today since terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon, and now it’s a two-way war, the U.S. is shooting back. The raids so far have been remarkably successful, according to the newspapers. Military targets are being wiped out and very little collateral damage. There were those four workers on contract to the United Nations, hired to clear landmines and wound up being killed by an American bomb. Who says the age of irony is over?
So everything seems to be going well, but who knows for sure? There is a dearth of reliable sources. The Taliban says there have been civilian deaths, but what does that mean? What’s a civilian to the Taliban? A Pashtun male whose beard is sufficiently long? If a thousand Afghan women were killed, would the Taliban notice? Would they bother to count?
On the American side, all information is filtered through the Department of Defense. All the targets were hit, civilian casualties were few, we are told. Food was dropped. But is that the whole story? The Washington Post reported Tuesday that 17 news organizations were told on Friday the fifth to have reporters and camerapeople ready to go overseas. That’s how all those reports rolled in from aircraft carriers and cruise missile destroyers. That’s how Tom Brokaw came to be wearing an appropriately serious and sober tie on Sunday afternoon. They knew it was coming and they kept it a secret. News outlets are complying with the military’s request to keep the anonymity of sailors and pilots, relying instead on the noms de guerre of radio call signs. The eyewitnesses of the bombing of Kabul were identified in major newspapers as “Woodstock,” “Vinny,” “Stinky,” “Doc,” “Beacon” and “Biff.” Who says the age of satire is over?
It is said the military is always fighting the last war. The same may be true for the media and the public. During the Gulf War, we were told all the smart bombs hit their targets, the Patriot missiles were extraordinarily effective, Saddam Hussein’s scuds were duds. Years later, in congressional hearings, it came out that it just wasn’t so. The Defense Department lied to the American public in the Gulf War, in Panama, in Grenada, in Vietnam. They’ve lied about missile defense, the F-22, the Osprey, the B-1, the B-2 and the $200 toilet seats. Sometimes the American media exposes this; sometimes, like last weekend, it plays along. They say they’re being patriotic, but really, they just don’t want to lose their access. Power corrupts, and proximity to power corrupts, too. Now the Bush White House is reluctant to share information even with Congress and some are trying to gag the Voice of America.
All that baggage, 35 years of lies and distrust, no wonder we’re fighting the last war when we hear news reports from the front. Maybe this war is different. Maybe, because of what happened a month ago today, the American public is more supportive of this war, more supportive than we ever were of Panama or Grenada. Maybe the generals feel secure enough about the homefront that they don’t feel the need to overstate the successes and understate the collateral damage. On the other hand, maybe the Pentagon is putting a positive spin on the news to keep the international coalition intact, especially to reassure Muslim nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Is this a just war? After three decades of lies and deceit from the military, from the politicians, from the defense contractors, the very notion of a just war is hard for some sectors of the American public to wrap its mind around. Yes, we were attacked and innocent people were killed, but I don’t doubt for a moment that General Electric and Martin Marietta will use the recent surge in patriotism to raid the treasury – again – or that self-serving politicians will use this as an excuse to limit civil liberties, the very freedoms we say we are fighting to defend.
I now have a better understanding of why the generation born in the 20s and 30s were so dismayed by Vietnam era anti-war protests. The Second World War and Korea had conditioned them to believe all American wars are just, the same way my generation has learned from our experience that American wars are seldom just.
We’re all fighting the war we know.