The Fox v The Fox. Image by Webdiary artist Martin Davies. www.daviesart.com

G’day. The whole world is watching this war. For the first time, we get propaganda from both sides, and we become the judge of what is true or false. This is an extraordinary development in warfare, and one creating tremendous accountability pressure, particularly on the Americans. Is this the beginning of world government by the people?

The people’s opinion has already had an enormous impact, by empowering France and Germany to say no and forcing Turkey, Mexico, Chile and others not to say yes. Now the US is being watched by a skeptical world holding it accountable to its rhetoric of liberation.

In my view, the embedding policy is proving a disaster for the Allies. We see the realities of war – the sheer hell of it – stripped of the language of war designed to turn it into an abstract, heroic game. The Herald’s page one photo today says it all. In orange hell, an allied soldier tends to an injured Iraqi. Both are tragic figures. Both are symbols of the failure of their leaders.

Not only that, the field commanders are telling the journos the truth, and the journos can see the truth, in part, for themselves. How can the bosses say the war is going to plan when the soldiers on the ground say they were profoundly misled about the resistance to expect, when American soldiers talk of Vietnam, and the Brits of Northern Ireland.

And how could it not be so? The US and Saddam have been dancing with each other for decades now, first as parties in crime, now in a dance of death. They are joint oppressors of the Iraqi people. It used to be the Brits, first the colonial rulers, then the knowing suppliers of WMDs for money, eyes tight closed to what Saddam was doing with them to massacre his own people. The Iraqi people may be about to take their revenge on all three of their oppressors. And John Howard has put poor little innocent Australia in the middle of the apocalypse.

This 24 hour war, where the public knows both sides are without moral integrity, puts the focus squarely on journalistic ethics. How do they adjust to war? You can feel the tension just watching the Qatar briefings by the US military, as US journos focus on news of casualties, French, German, Chinese and Canadian on the problems with and ethics of the war. Each has the perspective of their country in mind, and the world is split on this war. al-Jazeera journos are under pressure for showing images which humiliate allied soldiers, and are now banned from the New York stock exchange.

This war is a watershed for the role of the journalist, as well as the role of the public. Traditionally, the public is hostage to their country’s propaganda machine, backed by a home media getting behind the war effort. But when public opinion is so split even in allied countries, so the media splits. And when the allies are fighting a war most of the world believes is illegal with overwhelming firepower the Iraqis can’t hope to match, scrutiny becomes almost intolerable, and the allies’ moral case and railing against the tactics of an enemy impossible to credit, almost pathetic.

My feeling at the moment is that all this is greatly improving the truthfulness of both the Iraqi and American war machines. Each wants to get the credibility edge over the other. And don’t think the media has become all powerful here either. The availability of alternative news and views means mainstream media is under unprecedented scrutiny from the people too. The media groups which keep their credibility intact or nearly intact during this war will be big winners with the public after it.

On Wednesday night on Lateline I saw a compelling interview with the former leader of Israel Ehud Barak, an experienced general. He said the unprecedented 24 hours coverage of the war from all sides of the conflict, particularly the reports from embedded troops, was actually affecting how the war was being fought:

“It’s quite normal when you move a quarter of a million of soldiers that you lose several helicopters in crashes and some soldiers are taken prisoners and some lose their lives as well as enemy with soldiers and equipment is lost. It’s part of any war. The only new thing is that this war is covered continuously, like the Truman Show, kind of, appearance and the whole world is watching and every platoon that surrenders becomes a global headline.”

“I know from my experience as a prime minister how complicated it is to keep the expectation of a public in regard to something that is going to happen within a zone of proper expectation. It’s not easy and your need in the media to produce new headlines every two hours makes it even more complicated.”

Today, Jack Robertson’s first Meeja Watch on the war. For relief from the madness, sort of, Polly Bush’s column is how the war is affecting AFL etiquette: No no war in footie, please.

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Meeja Watch war

by Jack Robertson

Two views of the war from the Sydney Morning Herald, 28 March 2003

1. War is going ‘extremely well’, says Howard

The war against Iraq was going extremely well, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Mr Howard, in his first press conference on the war in several days, said people who believed the war would have been won in a few days misunderstood the nature of armed conflict. “I believe in all the circumstances (it is) going extremely well,” he told reporters. “To those who are suggesting that because it hasn’t in effect resulted in complete victory in the space of a week, I suggest they take a reality check and understand a number of things.”

Mr Howard said one of the reasons the war had gone a little slower than anticipated was because of the way the coalition of the willing was trying to minimise civilian deaths. “The ethical way in which the coalition is conducting this campaign is in stark contrast with the absolute disregard for human life which has been a hallmark of the Iraqi regime,” he said.

2. Nightmare of telling friend from foe

Sergeant Tony Menendez spent the past three days in the Iraqi desert fighting a hit-and-run battle that left hundreds of Iraqis dead and resulted in no US casualties. Menendez, back in camp for his first shower in days, wasn’t boastful. He was sad. “Their technology is sad, so outdated,” said Menendez, of Miami, an Abrams tank gunner. “I saw their faces, and I felt so bad for them.”

Menendez and others of the 3rd Infantry Division who have been struggling for control of An Najaf, about 130 km south of Baghdad, have battled against Iraqi fighters with AK-47s, grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets and mortars as well as 30-year-old Russian built tanks. The Americans lost four tanks in the three day battle, two apparently to laser-guided Russian made, anti-tank missiles. Two others ran off bridges into canals during sandstorms.

But what strikes the US soldiers most is that Iraqis come to battle often in civilian clothes packed in pickup trucks, cargo trucks, taxis and buses with velvet curtains. “The Iraqis took it bad. It was suicide,” said Private 1st Class Jonathan Simatos of Los Angeles, who drives a Bradley fighting vehicle. Similar scenes are unfolding throughout southern and central Iraq with poorly equipped Iraqis, most lacking uniforms, being militarily routed by superior American forces. The Iraqis are not members of the regular army but are Fedayeen, irregular militia members loyal to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. Because so many Iraqi fighters lack uniforms and arms and, in some cases, even shoes, American soldiers are having difficulty telling civilians from combatants – and friend from foe. Fear of civilians and concerns about where their loyalties lie was palpable throughout the field yesterday.

The rules of engagement were clear: Don’t shoot anyone who isn’t armed; if they are armed, shoot them. “We’re looking for black flags, black uniforms and people with weapons,” one commander told his troops.

160 km away along Highway seven busloads of civilian-garbed, poorly armed, and sometimes shoeless Iraqis have driven directly at American convoys. The outcome is always the same: US forces pour rounds from Humvee-mounted .50-caliber machine guns into the buses. Most onboard die. The rest are taken prisoner. Southeast of Najaf, soldiers guarding an ammunition and fuel depot were wary of Iraqi civilians as well. Seemingly civilian vehicles – white vans – have actually been armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

But [such tactics have] sown some confusion among American soldiers about who to trust – and made it difficult to win the hearts and minds of Iraqi civilians. At one point yesterday in the sweep outside Najaf, soldiers rounded up 48 civilian villagers, forcing the men to lie face down in the sand and, in a violation of Islamic custom, patting down the women. No weapons were found on those civilians. “This is about the oddest situation I’ve ever been through in my life,” said Private 1st Class Matthew Pedone, 19, of Springdale, Arkansas, as he cradled a light machine gun across one knee. “Just look at the primitive living conditions. Some of them don’t have shoes.” When asked if he believed the villagers were Iraqi militia who had fired mortars, Pedone said he was unsure. “I don’t know,” he said. “Intel said it was a training camp or something. I’m just doing what I’m told to do. If the leadership tells me to check them for weapons, I do it.”

******

MASS DENIAL VIRUS TRACED TO DR STUPID

AAP, Friday: THE UNITED NATIONS SANITY COUNCIL HAS CONFIRMED that the virulent Denial Virus which swept the Anglosphere this week, leaving millions in the Coalition Of The Willing dangerously deluded and deteriorating into terminal adolescent insanity, was almost certainly the work of the fictional global terrorist ‘Dr Stupid’, brother of the slightly-more-notorious-but-equally-contrived ‘Dr Evil’.

Officials said the virus, which can attack the scepticism and irony systems in powerful or influential opinion leaders of both pro and anti-war sentiment, bore all the hallmarks of the most self-destructive of the many ‘Axis of Evil’ masterminds which had been self-created from thin, hot air by the West since September 11.

Speaking only-barely-on-the-record at the Oscars ceremony, Sanity Council spokesman Michael Moore said that the Denial Virus, which to date has infected only human beings but has never-the-less prompted several Gods to issue pre-emptive statements denying complicity in the fighting in Iraq, represents a serious escalation in the ‘War on Terror’, one that the UNSC has long feared.

“Every Anglospherian with a public platform, including many of us who are against this war, is living in an infected fictitional bubble right now, a McCluhanite Mass Meeja fantasyland which is now apparently resistant to any inoculating dose of raw, ugly truth at all. We’ve hit this sucker with reports from embedded war correspondents, we’ve tried live feeds from Bagdad under bombardment, we’ve lifted gruesome al-Jazeera footage and we’ve even tinkered with on-air ‘ethical dilemma assaults’ from temporarily-doubtful anchors who should have learned about the high cost of a self-deluding, self-excusing media way back in Vietnam. And yet all these high-profile Boomer cretins still haven’t grasped the ugly fact that launching an aggressive war of choice automatically puts an invading army on the wrong side of the ‘moral clarity’ equation when things start to turn messy in the field,” wailed a desperate Moore. He elicited what he later denied was anything other than unanimous applause from the gathering of Selfless Hollywood Geniuses, among them Best Actress winner Nicole Kidman, who in her acceptance speech also underscored how important it was for contemporary ‘Artists’ to deny the existence of the real world completely.

Quoting himself at admirable length, Moore went on:

“Not even my brilliantly iconoclastic books and documentaries seem to be smashing home the reality of the terrible mess the Anglosphere has now blundered into in Iraq. This Denial Virus is causing the most tenacious outbreak of wilful self-deception the world has seen since 1930s Germany. Such a weapon of mass delusion in the non-existent hands of a stateless rogue like Dr Stupid could ultimately lead to catastrophe for the gentle, democratic West.”

As the global denial crisis gathered momentum, Kofi Annan called for an immediate suspension of hostilities in Iraq, announcing that France, Germany and Russia would push next week for a new Sanity Council resolution incorporating a plan to disarm the world peacefully of the virus, although a spokesman for French President Jacques Chirac flatly denied that the resolution would need to include an automatic trigger for a resumption of military action in the event that Stupid himself failed to comply.

The spokesman said that the proposed new resolution as drafted was already “as unavoidable as the Maginot Line, as uncompromising as the Vichy Treaty, and as undeniable as the prosecution case against Dreyfuss.’ In a breaking development, however, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun denying rumours that a rift with France has already opened up, reportedly over joint Russo-German moves to add the phrase “and as ultimately successful as Napoleon Bonaparte” to the new resolution’s preamble.

US-Coalition leaders and neo-conservative commentators remained resolutely unmoved by both the new disarmament proposal and the Sanity Council warnings, denying that the Denial Virus had led to any change of Coalition military strategies in either the Liberation Of Terror or the War On Iraq. “We don’t deny that some isolated cases of serious denial of reality have occurred in the past – perhaps,” said Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer, arguing that while the pending legal action of key invasion strategist Richard Perle against journalist Seymour Hersch might be seen by some as a particularly illuminating case of denial, Perle’s shock resignation from the influential Defence Advisory Board today “clearly demonstrates that at least some harsh reality is finally dawning on this Administration”.

Fleischer continued, however, to deny other specific reports of denial among key Bush officials, including claims by White House reporters that Secretary of State Colin Powell had recently denied that he was considering resignation over his ‘diplomatic failure on Iraq’ – itself a charge Powell vigorously denies – and reports coming from Kuwait that General Tommy Franks was now denying any split with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over coalition force strength and disposition.

“It’s a war, and in any war situation, obviously you’re going to get rumours of delusion and denial being tossed all about,” said Fleischer, stressing that President Bush had always sought to embrace a frank and open policy on “the whole denial-of-worldly-reality issue”, and in fact “prayed every morning with John Ashcroft and Paul Wolfowitz for Divine Guidance” on the matter.

Fleischer also denied that the Bush Administration had ever argued that the Iraqi people would welcome the Coalition forces as ‘liberators’, repeatedly accusing White House journalists of “getting the titles of the two distinct security campaigns we’ve been running since S11 mixed up”.

He also vigorously denied that resentment, hostility, hatred and sustained violence directed by Iraqis at US, British and Australian forces operating in the Persian Gulf was at all representative of the “average Iraqi’s true feelings”.

“All these critics who are so eager to claim that angry mobs chanting anti-American slogans and shooting at GIs distributing food are somehow being anti-American are, quite frankly, simply knee-jerk anti-Americans in total denial of the reality of this situation,” he said.

“You have to keep these things in perspective. It’s a war. Of course you’re going to see some denial of America’s benevolence, from what I would call pro-regime elements of the Iraqi population, such as the grieving fathers of newly-dead kids, bombed-out market stall owners, and the southern Shi’ites Saddam tortured, raped and murdered during the 91 uprising. But it’s important to deny Saddam a propaganda victory by not blowing these isolated denials of reality out of perspective. What’s absolutely undeniable is that most Iraqis love us, and are deeply grateful for this invasion of their homeland. They love us to bits, and they understand that part of learning to love America to bits – a sad part, sure, an undeniably difficult part – is accepting that America may need to blow some of them to bits, first. OK, so some stubborn Iraqis may deny that subtle reality, but we strongly deny that individual denials of that nature constitute anything like a denial epidemic.”

The US Administration’s denial denials were echoed in London London even as Tony Blair emerged with Bush at Camp David from their first denial council since the invasion of Iraq was launched, to jointly deny that they both remained in self-denial about the magnitude of what they had started.

In the lead-up to the critical weekend, Blair’s Press Secretary Alistair Campbell had already moved behind the scenes to deny rumours that differences in British and American attitudes on post-Saddam reconstruction were already weakening the Coalition’s wartime unity. Leaking off-the-record denials via the Hustler letters page, Campbell made it undeniably clear to Westminster lobby hacks that however much the British Prime Minister’s denials of the harsh reality of in-theatre developments in Iraq might differ “in nuance, tone and focus” from those emerging from the White House, there remained a “fundamental, Trans-Atlantic denial accord”, and that “Britain and America would together persist, endure, persevere and prevail” in what was still “our broadly bipartisan bout of geo-political self-delusion, poised as we are together at this portentous turning point in the history of global democracy”.

International Development Minister Clare Short, in a Downing Street doorstop interview clearly authorised by Blair, was typically more blunt: “My ideas for the post-Saddam Iraq received a brilliant hearing from Richard Armitage in Washington earlier this week,” she said. “I am confident that Mr Bush’s Administration will not deny Britain or the UN a full and controlling involvement. You only have to consider the contractual processes to date; who can deny the transparency and fairness of the Halliburton oil-fire deals, for example?”

Short said that after her meeting with Armitage, her conscience remained “as clear as ever”, but played a dead bat to questions regarding speculation among Labour rebel backbenchers that if post-Saddam events proved her wrong, she would immediately not resign from the Cabinet again in protest. “I’m neither confirming nor denying that,” she said. “One must keep one’s powder dry.”

In Baghdad, which many proponents of the Iraq invasion have argued has links with Dr Stupid and other global terrorists, six Saddam Husseins again appeared on State Television denying any connection with the Denial Virus, or any other weapons of mass delusion. Reading from written statements, the Saddams declared that Iraq “has no need to make joint cause with Dr Stupid and his weapons of mass denial, for even though we would be proud to know this great anti-Western warrior, we Iraqis are capable of such tactics all on our own, praise Allah”.

Appearing relaxed and untroubled by the gun barrels behind their ears, the Saddams denied that they were dead or injured, claiming that they remained in full control despite “this illegal invasion and occupation by Imperialist Crusaders of Iraq’s rightful sovereign territory, such as Kuwait City”.

Several of the Saddams appealed to the international anti-war community to “take to the streets in protest again to stop this unlawful killing of innocent Iraqis, which is surely for us alone to do”. They repeatedly denied anew that the regime possessed any weapons of mass delusion, calling upon the UNSC to halt hostilities immediately so that the new French-draft resolution would give them “the opportunity to continue our denials of weapons of mass delusion peacefully”. If the UNSC failed to do this and allowed the Crusaders to enter Baghdad, the Saddams warned, they would unleash every weapon of mass delusion they had, in what they menacingly described as “the Mother of All Mass Denials”.

In Canberra, Prime Minister John Howard continued to deny that Australian had already irrevocably committed forces to the invasion of Iraq, but praised the “bravery, commitment, courage and skill of our soldiers, sailors and airmen” who, he told Parliament, had been singled out many times by Pentagon officials for their effectiveness in the fighting.

In a final fiery question time before Parliament rose, Howard also passionately denied that Australia would ever commit troops “in any way, shape or form” to what he dismissed as the “purely hypothetical” matter of any post-Saddam “Liberation Stabilisation Force” the US might establish, but told the House that his government would certainly commit troops to such a force once it ceased to be hypothetical, since it would then become his “passionate belief” that helping with the “heavy denying” would be in the national interest.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied that Australia’s non-involvement in the Coalition Of The Willing in Iraq would increase the terrorist threat faced by Australia, before advising Australian journalists in the north of Iraq that following the commencement of Coalition operations they were now being specifically targeted by Ansar al-Islam terrorists operating there, and that while as Australians they should always remain relaxed and comfortable, they should also now endeavour to become alert but not alarmed.

In other mass denial news, anti-war protesters in Sydney who threw rocks, marbles, chairs and themselves at police have heatedly denied that they are dangerous hypocrites, while NSW Police Minister Michael Costa has denied that police threats to take legal action denying a similar protest next week represents any denial of civil liberties.

Opponents of the invasion of Iraq who argued that “it is all about oil and US economic hegemony” are denying that America’s spiralling war costs are making them look pretty dumb in retrospect, broadsheet Op Ed commentators who took the doctrine of pre-emption or the Washington neo-cons seriously for a minute are rushing to deny they ever did, and the Federal ALP continues to deny that it is unelectable.

In etymological developments, ‘Peace’ once again denied that it was ‘War’ and ‘Liberation’ sought to distance itself from ‘Invasion’, while everyone in the gentle, democratic West desperately, desperately, desperately tried to deny the dawning truth: that this is a disaster for America, Britain, Australia, Iraq and the world, an act of unnecessary, tragic aggression, and a bitter betrayal of our soldiers by our politicians. God help us all in the months and years ahead.

Finally, pre-empting predictable outrage from various closet-Trekky warbloggers, Meeja Watch writer Jack Robertson coldly denied that writing stuff like this while American, British and Australians were killing and dying in Iraq was treachery, and recommended that each of them not waste any time calling him un-Australian or anti-American again, but instead try turning off their computer, heading down to the local recruitment centre, and translating their tiresome cyber-warmongering into a little real world action for a change.

Maybe one fine day in the long, bloody years ahead – if any of them make it through basic training, that is – they might finally, finally, finally grasp what it actually means to go to war in the real world. As are all the poor bastards they helped send off to Iraq right now.