Via Jack Kelly’s well written and charmingly illustrated blog Irish Pennants comes this link to retired US General Barry McCaffrey’s report on his recent trip to Iraq. McCaffrey, drug czar under Clinton, was an early critic of the war, but here he seems more optimistic than most in that guarded way that makes you believe him. He has an interesting suggestion:
6. Coalition Public Diplomacy Policy is a disaster:
1st – The US media is putting the second team in Iraq with some exceptions. Unfortunately, the situation is extremely dangerous for journalists. The working conditions for a reporter are terrible. They cannot travel independently of US military forces without risking abduction or death. In some cases, the press has degraded to reporting based on secondary sources, press briefings which they do not believe, and alarmist video of the aftermath of suicide bombings obtained from Iraqi employees of unknown reliability.
2nd – Our unbelievably competent, articulate, objective, and courageous Battalion, Brigade, and Division Commanders are no t on TV. These commanders represent an Army-Marine Corps which is rated as the most trusted institution in America by every poll.
3rd – We are not aggressively providing support (transportation, security, food, return of film to an upload site, etc) to reporters to allow them to follow the course of the war.
4th – Military leaders on the ground are talking to people they trust instead of talking to all reporters who command the attention of the American people. (We need to educate and support AP, Reuters, Gannet, Hearst, the Washington Post, the New York Times, etc.)
(We need to educate and support AP, Reuters, Gannet, Hearst, the Washington Post, the New York Times, etc.)
Hard to argue with the sentiment, but nobody knows how to do it. The problem is that the major media are not simply uneducated and uninformed, they are actually hostile to what the military are trying to accomplish.
Roger:
Does the press want to be educated? It is probably a good idea except for the fact that if I am a Brigade leader I am probably going to be having to be thinking about what the enemy is doing and at the same time worry if the press is going to cherry pick my every word and action and present it in a bad light. I do not think the press hates the soldiers but their antipathy towards President Bush and the war is so strong that if I was a soldier I might not want them tagging along.
Not every soldier, active or just back from Iraq, supports the war or how it is being waged but if they don’t you can be sure they will be presented on the nightly news or quoted in the press.
Our soldiers are such fine men and women they might be able to overcome the hostlity of the press towards the war. McCaffrey’s ideas might be correct. But my trust of the press is so low that I think that subjecting our soldiers to the agenda journalism of the MSM might be too much. They have enough on their plate as it is.
Kevin Peters
flenser,
A bit worse than that even. Second raters are being assigned to Iraq to show their mettle in feeding their (editors) bosses the type of fodder that is deemed suitable. How can you get a byline without properly feeding your editor?
Gen McCaffrey also cashes a check now and then from a news organization. While I consider this memo to be forthright in most aspects a notation of his dual status wrt the media was in order.
I would like an explanation as to how Michael Yount is able to turn out unblinking reports. It does not appear that “education and support” were provided by the military to prepare Michael to properly do his job.
Aside from that, Gen McCaffrey has prepared a very clear eyed precis regarding many elements of the military situation in Iraq. Five tough years to go seems about right.
Rick
McCaffrey points out sources (the battalion and divisional commanders) whose voices are not getting out.
Perhaps an enterprising start-up news outfit, with an emphasis in blogging, could give these people a voice, and at the same time establish it’s own presence and credibility.
Can you think of anyone who might fit the bill? I hear rumours about something called “PJ Media”.
Really, I find it hard to believe that Fox cannot send somebody to interview these people. Just pull some reporters off the Aruba beat.
Today on Fox I there was a young reporter {I don’t remember his name} and he was doing the Baghdad thing. And he started talking about Sadr. Hell, I know more about this guy than he does. For instance I know that Sadr did not get enough support in the election to gain even one seat in the assembly so now he has decided to have his boys infiltrate the police. Sadr is an oppurtunistic trouble making little worm living off his dead relatives’ repuration. He is not even remotely in Sistani’s league.
But it seems the reporter does not know any of that.
I am sure that after what happened to Steven Vincent these guys are even more afraid and I agree the US needs to do better PR.
I also think that as far as a lot of the military is concerned having a reporter around is a lot like having a rattler in the bed with you. After some of the stuff the journalists have said and done I would not blame the soldiers for wanting them to be far away.
In some respects I think things might go better in Iraq if the journalists all went to Aruba.
A very interesting precis by Gen. McCaffrey, more thoughtful and comprehensive than singling out his discussion of the ‘public affairs’ aspect of the war. RTWT; it’s worth it, and provides clarity that you will not find anywhere in the MSM.
He was indeed an early critic of the war, but of its execution, not its aims. As someone who came to prominence as a divisional commander (24th Mech Inf, IIRC) in Gulf War I, I’m sure he had no illusions about the Hussein government and was not sorry to see it go. It sounds from his report that his initial concerns have been addressed by the current military brain trust. You can feel an old soldier bursting with pride when he talks about Abizaid, Petraeus and Casey (although I am interested in whether he has any personal or professional friendships/rivalries with the generals he mentions).
I’d agree with Rick Ballard’s summary: It sounds like McCaffrey is predicting another five years of hands-on involvement. But if things continue to go well, maybe we can exhale around the end of ’06.
Terrye,
In some respects I think things might go better in Iraq if the journalists all went to Aruba.
You are too kind. But maybe they could be tempted.
The wildcard I see in all this is avian flu. If the disaster scenarios some talk about come true, then the world will become a very different place through no action of ours. The performance, or lack thereof, of different governments in such a scenario could well lead to revolutions all over the place. I find it hard to believe that a worldwide pandemic lies in the near future, but we better be prepared.
Hmm, send ‘em to Aruba or bring ‘em from Aruba. How about sending ‘em halfway to Aruba and bringing ‘em halfway from Aruba? That seems a reasonable compromise. While they’re swimming the rest of the way, milbloggers could fill the gap.
I noticed two other little items in the memo with which I strongly disagree. If the troops can live without their families in Kuwait, the gen-gens can damn well do it too. I know they have a lot of years in but so do the SM’s and CSM’s. Second – no individual rotation. It kills unit cohesion and brings back too many Vietnam memories. Train the troops as a unit, deploy them as a unit and bring them home as a unit. If a unit has a lot of short timers then remake it in training before deployment.
NYT had ANOTHER editorial today (by a journalist who usually writes movie reviews for Salon) complaining that the reason that there are no war heroes is the divide of the military from the public, so there is no wish for the public to read about heroism…
I’m sorry, but many of us HAVE served in the military, and have family in the military…and the reason for failure to publicize acts of real heroism is because some in the press don’t know anyone in the military, only each other.
Perhaps we should go back to preference in hiring for military veterans…nahh. They might be (shudder shudder) Republicans.
(And I’m a democrat…on hold)
Roger:
They don’t want to learn. Picked up a link on Instapundit about Wolf Blitzer. He had a military expert and quizzed him about the recent tragic death of the 14 Marines. Wolf’s talking point was that the marines died because of the lack of armored humvees. The expert explained that the IED was huge. The charge flipped the 31 ton vehicle and it exploded into flames.A uparmored Hummer weighs 4 tons The explosive was so severe that they don’t know if the Marines died from the schrapnel or the flames. Yet Wolfe went on about the lack of proper equipment for the Marines. He didn’t listen to the expert he brought on because he already had his storyline written out. I have no doubt that the Army’s PR could be better but look what they are working with.
Kevin Peters
Perhaps the military are wary of having journalists in their midst,after all,these are people so objective they will photogragh a man dying rather than render assistance,let troops walk into and ambush, and in the case of Kevin Sites release pictures worldwide incriminating those who would have to put their lives on the line if the reporter was in danger.
One can understand the reluctance on behalf of the military to carry the scorpion over the river.
Rick–
One of the reasons Michael Yon can report as effectively as he does is because he is a former Special Forces soldier. He knows the people and how to keep from getting himself killed too.
I would guess it’s a whole lot easier to turn soldiers into war reporters than the reverse.
FA,
When I read Yon’s reports – especially the first one I read concerning going into a mess hall – I get the impression that there is a certain distancing involved on both sides. I certainly agree with your premise. If the MSM were even faintly objective (let alone pro-American) and had the wit to escape from a closet with the door open, it would run an ad over at Greyhawk’s for returning milbloggers who were leaving the service.
I won’t hold my breath.
“Military leaders on the ground are talking to people they trust instead of talking to all reporters who command the attention of the American people.”
Now that’s an interesting and revealing quote. Someone needs to explore why there is a subset of the “reporters who command the attention of the American people” who are not trusted by the military leaders on the ground. It would also be useful to know how big that subset is. Naming names would be nice too, although probably unrealistic to expect.
Dear Roger,
I heard Cpt. Dale Dye speak of this report Sunday. I tend to agree with him. I think one of the reasons the press finds it hard to trust us is because no matter what they report, they are criticized. We don’t trust them! I wrote a piece on this specific issue.
The jihidists are using the press. So should we. We are losing the truth to the propogandists. We are winning on the ground. With Arthur Chrenkoff leaving the blogosphere, what shall we do? *sigh*
I have to go dry my face, again.