Embedded Reporters: A Bad Idea
By David Huntwork (11/29/04)
A United States marine now faces possible conviction and punishment for war crimes for finishing off a wounded enemy fighter in Fallujah. An act not unique and perhaps understandable in the intense and bitter fighting for the city, but one caught on film by freelance NBC news correspondent Kevin Sites and released worldwide within hours. How this anti-war activist became a pool reporter for a variety of news organizations and embedded with the military forces he despises has not been explained but casts a dark shadow of doubt on the practice of allowing reporters and film crews on the front line during combat.
The reaction to the controversial footage shot by Sites predictably varied from outrage to profound praise. Commentators and bloggers reacted with their usual fierce opinions and an online petition of support for the marine quickly surpassed a quarter of a million signatures. The petition can be viewed here: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?as123.
This story, though no longer in the top headlines, is far from over.
The question really becomes whether reporters and camera crews should be allowed to be present where such controversial actions in battle will inevitably occur.
The presence of reporters and camera crews sooner or later creates video footage for the enemy’s recruitment and propaganda machine. A free society shoots itself in the foot and emboldens and encourages the enemy by allowing such scenes, taken out of context, to be broadcast. The military censors failed horribly in this instance and the United States has paid a high price in world opinion by its broadcast.
War is brutal and in a politically correct, hypersensitive society this undermines the will to fight and undercuts support for the truth. The presence of reporters on the front lines creates avenues for them to skirt the rules regarding the review of footage shot in combat zones.
A 19 year old soldier should not have to worry that his every instinctive action during combat could potentially be used against him simply because it was caught on tape. Endless replaying of the images and the constant commentary by the talking heads takes the focus off the end goal and detracts from victory in the field. Such an act of combat carnage caught on tape invariably fails to properly convey what is happening on the ground and distorts the true account of an action or situation. There is no sense of perspective or history to a simple snippet of a much larger drama and story.
There is an amazing clash of culture, religion, and world views taking place in Iraq and I have always supported recording the momentous events of such a war for the sake of history. At the same time, the failure to control the release of the footage of the marine killing an injured insurgent in Fallujah forces us to reconsider the wisdom of embedding reporters with the troops and allowing their unedited video to be released to the world.
We must not forget that it is the enemy that is dictating the type of battle being fought and breaking every rule of warfare. It is a fight where the ‘dead’ pop up to shoot soldiers, bodies are booby trapped, and terrorist thugs fake injury only long enough for US forces to hesitate and themselves become casualties from such trickery. No tears should be shed or hands wrung for a foe that beheads contractors, takes hostages, disembowels women, executes aid workers, employs suicide bombers, terrorizes the civilian population, fakes death and surrender to kill soldiers and generally plays dirty in this war.
The fight for Fallujah is the blueprint that needs to be followed if victory is too attained in this particular battle in the world wide war on terror, terror regimes, nuclear proliferation and Islamic fascism. This war must be won and crying crocodile tears for a terrorist thug that received the battlefield justice he deserved will not help the free world achieve victory.
For there ever to be true peace and stability in Iraq and the Middle East there first must be the death, capture and defeat of those who are the followers of despots, use terror as a political weapon, and seek the elimination or submission of all infidels. At least 2500 killed or captured in Fallujah is but a start, but it is a good start nonetheless. The back of the insurgency must be broken and the establishment of a moderate, representative modern government must be successfully implemented. The age of the terror state in the post 9-11 world is coming to an end and Iraq is a strategic and necessary part of that plan. Failure is not an option and anything, including the idea of embedded reporters, that impedes that lofty goal cannot be tolerated.
When it comes to blaming someone for what we saw in Fallujah, blame not the marine but those who filmed and released such footage to the world.
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