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which missed the signals for 9/11. When the
strike was reported, all the network guys – and
so many look the same, sound the same, and
make the same points – were surprised since
they had clearly been told when the “real” war
would begin. Many seemed disappointed not to
be able to see the pictures of Baghdad (they
agreed to share) turn into an apocalypse. Tom,
Peter, Dan, et. al. were all waiting for the fireworks,
the videogame, the promised “shock and
awe.” On Fox News, Britt Hume stumbled after
calling Iraq Al Qaeda and quickly corrected himself.
All of the bad guys seem to have merged
into one as the crusade for freedom, liberation
and more defense spending steps into high gear
just like the terror alert that preceded it.
Critic-free coverage
NEEDLESS to say, I saw NO war critics on the air.
None. No Iraqis, No Arab journalists.
No one who felt any duty to report the other
side, even the multi-sides of the other side. The
only critical voices I heard were callers on
CSPAN. CBC (Canada) did feature commentary
from Eric Margolis, the Toronto Star columnist
who explained that the use of the missiles
stemmed from an incident in the Afghan War
when the U.S. had Mullah Omar in its bombsights
but did not press the button. The one-eyed
epitome of Evil lived and the government vowed
never to pass up another such “opportunity.”
You could just imagine the scene at the afternoon
planning meeting at the White House when
these boys with war toys gleefully projected a
scenario in which the war could be over before it
began with one fatal surgical strike. For weeks
now they have been deploying psychological
MOBILIZING OPINION
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operations to divide Saddam from his gang, and
scare the Iraqis into surrender. And scare us at
the same time. We have armed National Guardsman
in the bus terminal here in New York and
one of our staff members said it felt like 9-11 all
over again, and that she was near tears.
What is missing?
AFTER watching this wall-to-wall war room for
hours, with its videophones, and reporters
standing by at the Pentagon, at the White House,
in Qatar, in the desert, with the troops, on the
ships, I felt a sense of my own decapitation. My
own brain was being bombarded with bluster
bombs and BS. Needless to say, there was no one
standing by with the humanitarian groups, like
Doctors Without Borders, which has yet to flee
Iraq like the U.N., or for that matter, with the
organizers of the anti-war march slated for this
Saturday.
These other voices do not exist in the gun
sights of the TV cameras. The Bigs are on an endless
clock, counting down to war, and, at the same
time, counting all the overtime. For them the rest
of the world, its crises and issues, seemed to have
disappeared into the hole of the ONE BIG STORY,
like OJ and Monica before it. For example, there
was an escalation in the Afghan War last night
that is noted in the press but I did not see covered.
Jeanette, my editor, says she saw some
CNN and Fox coverage at about 4 a.m.
The commentators seemed to delight in recycling
all the Baathist bombast to arouse us all the
more. John Burns of The Times reported: “Saddam
Hussein exhorted his people to ‘draw your
swords’ against invaders and referred to the U.S.
government as ‘criminals’ and ‘Zionists.’ But