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thedrifter
04-09-03, 07:31 AM
In the Chaos of War, a Rift Is Healed


By Ed Offley



It is much too early to declare final victory in the war against Iraq, but this is an appropriate time to celebrate another triumph that is no less significant in the new and troubling era in which we all live.



For the first time since Vietnam, the profound estrangement between the U.S. military and the American news media has been significantly healed.



The primary reason for this healing can be credited to the daring, and even risky decision by the Department of Defense to “embed” more than 600 U.S. and international journalists within the ranks of the U.S. military force.



Reporters and photographers have documented the chaos, fear and even exultation of combat, for those of us at home who watch and read with anxious interest in the fate of those fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom – particularly the family members of the troops who pray each day for their loved ones’ safe return. A USA Today editorial lamenting the unexpected deaths of journalists Michael Kelly and David Bloom on Monday noted:



“For all of the hand-wringing over their independence and objectivity, the more than 500 embedded journalists traveling with U.S. troops have played a role that’s unique and valuable. By reporting on the war in Iraq as it occurs, they've become the American public’s eyes and ears - making the war more real for those following the front-line reports from home. At the same time, they've become trusted, intimate strangers.”



I would extend that thought to praise one direct result of this military-media partnership. The news coverage itself – in-depth, detailed, graphic and technologically advanced – has done much also to transform the hundreds of thousands of young men and women in uniform from faceless strangers and abstract notions, to “trusted, intimate strangers” themselves for literally tens of millions of Americans who do not have a direct connection to the military.



A second reason why the embed program has had a positive impact beyond the daily product of TV reports and print articles concerns the inevitable comradeship that nurtures in shared adversity. It is fitting and proper for journalists to maintain a sense of professional distance and detachment from the subjects of the reports they write or televise. In normal peacetime life, this is the standard. But in war and combat, with the taking and saving of lives, this is – bluntly speaking – an ideal that often will not be met, for the most humane of reasons.



Just ask Sanjay Gupta, a CNN medical correspondent accompanying Navy surgeons in Iraq, who was confronted with a severely-injured Iraqi baby who required emergency brain surgery. It turned out that Dr. Gupta was the only practicing neurosurgeon around, and when Navy doctors begged him to intervene, Gupta threw down his notebook, donned surgical scrubs and operated on the infant (who, tragically, eventually died).



Or ask Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ron Martz, who filed a first-person account on April 4, 2003, of his efforts to assist two Army soldiers he had been riding with who were seriously injured by Iraqi small-arms fire:



“The soldiers were there for a reason.



“The logical, rational explanation is that they were there because their tank caught fire and had to be destroyed. So, without a ride, they jumped onto the armored personnel carrier with me.



“I prefer to believe it was the hand of God that put them there, one behind me, one to my left. They were there to protect me.



“Had they not been there, I most likely would not be now typing this. Less than 30 minutes after the two soldiers joined me, both were wounded by bullets that could have hit me.



Martz went on to describe in meticulous, heart-wrenching detail how he helped Army medics stabilize the two soldiers as the Bradley infantry vehicle raced to an airfield to meet a medical evacuation helicopter.



“I cradled the soldier's head in one hand, while trying to get his flak jacket and shirt off so [Army medic Spc. Shawn] Sullivan could bandage him.



“Blood was spattered all over the inside of the vehicle. My left leg was sticky with the blood from the soldier with the chest wound. ‘Talk to them! Have them squeeze your hand!’ Sullivan shouted to me. So I talked to them. I told them they were getting out of this nasty little war that some experts had said would last five days and would be quick and easy. ‘You're going to be OK,’ I told them. ‘No more MREs. You'll get hot showers, cold beer and good-looking nurses.’



“ ‘Hold my hand,’ the soldier with the chest wound asked. My gloves were soaked with blood as I grabbed his hand. He smiled. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I think I'm ready to go home now.’ ”



What Gupta and Martz demonstrated in different ways is that in the heat of combat, there are other roles a journalist must sometimes play than that of the detached observer. It is neither a professional failure nor a moral lapse to do the right thing.



The new generation of troops emerging from Iraq as combat veterans have discovered new partners – a just-as-new generation of reporters and photographers who themselves have experienced the harsh realities of war. The bureaucratic disputes, budget fights and personnel controversies will resume after battle is done, but the bonds that have been forged between military and media on the sands of Iraq will endure far beyond that.



And both the soldiers and the scribes are better off for having met one another in that crucible. And so too are the American people.



Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.


Sempers,

Roger

SheWolf
04-09-03, 08:36 AM
at first I was against the embedded journalist, but now I think it is a good thing,, as long as they obey the guidelines set up by the military