During the first months of war we spoke with journalists in Iraq who were embedded and non-embedded. The difference in their views of the war itself were striking. The embeds saw the war from the side opposing the civilian population. The side entering homes and making random arrests and dropping bombs. The unembedded reporters saw the war more from the civilian Iraqi side; the side living in terror and without electricity, clean drinking water, food, security, or a clear future.
But it was the embedded journalist, Ron Martz, who coined a term that fit the situation. He said there must have been two wars in Iraq, the one he was seeing on the TV news, and the one he was watching on the ground in Baghdad. Then he explained what had happened when he wrote about the concerns of soldiers entering Baghdad, soldiers who were saying things like: “OK, where are the weapons?”
When he passed on their skepticism and relayed their lack of confidence in a command that had changed its war plan no less than three times even as the invasion was happening, Martz received hate mail. Here is how he described things back in 2003 in an OPED piece:
“There must have been two wars in Iraq. There was the war I saw and wrote about as a print journalist embedded with a tank company of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized). Then there was the war that many Americans saw, or wanted to see, on TV.” Embed Catches Heat, By Ron Martz, Published: May 15, 2003
It is the same with Israel’s attack on Lebanon. There are two wars going on in the Middle East. The one we are seeing on TV news channels and the one taking place on the ground in Lebanon where civilians huddle in basements. They are afraid to go out in the streets where only days before they lived, worked, and played. –And they are afraid to run away. Those with cars know that Israel bombed a convoy of refugees killing at least twelve and leaving the bodies of small babies and their families lying in the dust.
Yet, they have no food or water, no electricity, and no clear future.
We take time to document what is being said about this war.
Christian Science Monitor:
“Key Arab leaders condemn the Shiite group, despite its popularity with their citizens.”
By Dan Murphy and Sameh NaGuib
BAGHDAD AND CAIRO – “With Israel’s confrontation with Hizbullah and Lebanon lurching closer to all-out war, winds of anger are blowing through the Middle East that are likely to strengthen the political hand of radical Islamists from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.”
“Last Friday, Mr. Bush called Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia – America’s closest Arab allies – and urged them to help defuse the crisis. Those calls, and the attitudes of those countries’ people, served to emphasize the ways in which this crisis could hurt Israeli and American interests far beyond Lebanon and the Palestine territories.”
STEVEN ERLANGER and JAD MOUAWAD
Published: July 18, 2006
Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, told Agence France-Presse: “The operation will last for at least another week. The international pressure on Israel will allow us to continue for another week at least.â€
“Israel is making it possible for the Lebanese government to move in,†Foreign Minister Livni said. “In a way, Israel is doing the Lebanese government’s job for it†by taking on Hezbollah, which has been a state-within-a-state in southern Lebanon and southern Beirut.
“U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour criticized the growing death toll, saying the indiscriminate shelling of cities and of nearby military sites was invariably resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians.
“International law demands accountability,” Arbour said in Geneva. “The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control.” ”
More later, peace.