EVENTS

Date:	Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Time:	12:15 PM -- 2:00 PM
Location:	Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

May 2006

Reporting from Iraq: Veterans Speak Out on the Media's Coverage of the Iraq War

The gap between the reality of events on the ground and the manner in which they are reported in the media continues to be a hot topic of debate. While the media is quick to report on casualty figures, it is slow to report on the positive advances made by the new Iraqi government. Americans remain uninformed about everyday life in Iraq. Is there a “good news” story going untold? What can be done to counter the media’s focus on the downside in Iraq? Has the negative portrayal of events in Iraq hurt soldiers who take pride in their mission and their accomplishments? What do the American people need to know about the progress and ongoing conflict in Iraq that has not reached the press? On May 17, AEI hosted three veterans of the Iraq War, who addressed these and other questions about the media’s reporting of the conflict.

Cpl. Richard Gibson
U.S. Marine Corps

The War of Words Project of the America’s Majority organization collects the objective measures of success and failure in Iraq. This utilizes a variety of reliable statistics and indexes, and is crosschecked with polls and media reports in both America and Iraq. The project began when a group of marines who had served in Iraq returned to the United States to find an overwhelming misrepresentation of the war by the American media. The media did not report on the high goals and achievements the U.S. military has set for itself and has accomplished. This group of marines joined together to promote a more truthful version of events and accomplishments in Iraq and to correct the misconception that the war in Iraq has failed.

The United States has not succeeded on all fronts in Iraq. Nevertheless, Iraqis did indeed greet American troops as liberators, contrary to a popular media-propagated misconception, and continue to welcome America’s presence. Certainly there are those in Iraq--the insurgents--who are hostile toward the United States. However, these insurgents are a very small portion of the population and are almost universally loathed by Iraqis.

America has not entered into a quagmire in Iraq. Significant accomplishments have been achieved, including destroying Saddam’s regime, taking away the insurgents’ ability to hold territory, and preventing a civil war. There has also been great progress in forming a constitutional and democratic Iraqi government. While this has taken time, one should not forget that the fledgling United States took an even greater amount of time to constitute its democracy.

Lt. Lawrence Indyk
U.S. Army
 
Because there is a great mixture of signals coming from Iraq, it is essential to create an objective index of America’s accomplishments and Iraqis’ sentiments. To do this, one must inevitably use statistics provided from coalition sources. However, one can crosscheck these statistics by polling Iraqis to gauge how American efforts have impacted them. Indeed, the War of Words Project has used polls by a number of major American polling firms, including Zogby and Gallup.

First, in terms of security, the number of trained Iraqi troops has now well surpassed the number of coalition troops. The Iraqi government has the ability to clear and hold territory and to expand on this territory. Second, Iraqis have elected their first four-year parliament, with high turnout even in majority Sunni areas. Importantly, this created a rift between the two groups of insurgents, the jihadists and the former Baathists. The former Baathists currently perpetrate attacks in order to improve their ability to bargain with the new Iraqi government for a greater say and for amnesty for past misdeeds. The jihadists now see the new Iraqi government and Iraqi civilians as their main targets. In response, Iraqi civilian informants have been calling in tips in large numbers to the Iraqi government regarding terrorist whereabouts. This allows the Iraqis themselves to help dismantle the terrorist groups.

Polling data confirms that most Iraqis feel more secure today than they did under Saddam’s rule. While this does not mean that Iraqis are truly secure, it indicates significant improvement in public safety. Additionally, Iraqis’ high turnout for elections confirms the success of America’s effort to install the institutions of democracy. However, the prospects for the economy remain mixed with some achievements and some remaining failures. The war in Iraq has not failed, and Iraqis’ sentiments confirm this. Nevertheless, Americans continue to have a negative view of the war because of the media’s misrepresentation of the facts on the ground.

Sgt. J. D. Johannes
U.S. Marine Corps

Military personnel in Iraq still face significant daily security concerns. Embedded reporters face these same security risks alongside soldiers. However, most reporters are not willing to take these risks in order to cover the war. This leads to a significant media misrepresentation of actual events. Indeed, the war, for the most part, is one of boredom in which American soldiers have to seek out firefights with insurgents who have learned not to take on American troops and instead attack Iraqi civilians. Even when there are firefights, they are not as terrible as portrayed by reporters who are oftentimes not even present in Iraq.

There is a dearth of reporters in the field in Iraq, which results in reporting on specific events and bombings that inflates the importance of those events and makes it appear that there are no secure areas in Iraq. News organizations must cover not only the big failures and successes, but also the small, day-to-day, local stories. Covering only big failures and successes has created a misperception in the United States that America’s efforts have failed. However, one must recognize that the American media responds to ratings, and their ratings improve when they report on large, negative stories and not on small, successful ones.

F. J. “Bing” West
Author and former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs
 
This panel is very important because it allows military personnel in Iraq to express their views, and also prevents others from taking ownership of their opinions. Events in Iraq are no longer dependent on the United States because America’s political constraints ensure that American troops will leave Iraq in another twelve to eighteen months. America has thus begun to hand off Iraq to the Iraqis.

Iraqis have the organizational capability and intelligence to take on the task of their own governance and security. The question remains whether or not the culture of leadership for the common good has been instilled in the population. This is an especially important concept that must take root among the country’s senior political and military leadership. This culture was destroyed under Saddam and needs to be reconstituted. One example of the work necessary in this area is religious leaders’ failing to condemn insurgent bombings that target and kill civilians.

Another issue that remains to be resolved includes ensuring the efficacy and safety of the police forces and making these forces into more than mere sectarian militias. In addition, America has been trying to convince the insurgents not to fight America--because the United States will pull out soon--and not to fight the new Iraqi government, but rather to participate in it. Vital to accomplishing this and to gaining security in the country is not releasing insurgents a short time after they are captured. It is also important to issue identification cards in Iraq, which will help identify insurgents and thus improve security. The United States has already decided to pull out of Iraq in the near future. Thus, Iraq’s future is up to the Iraqis, and it remains to be seen how they will handle this responsibility.

AEI intern Daniel Kaplow prepared this summary.