Embedded vs Embattled: Arab Media Gives Lie to US Claims

As the US-Iraq war heads towards adenouement, one of its recurring images is going to be that of Baghdad ignitedby an unholy shade of techno-green as hundreds of cruise missiles exploded inthe nerve centre of this desert country. History''s first televised war hascreated a series of grizzly images of formidable air and fire power which hasnot managed easily to cow down either the Iraqi people or president SaddamHussein. The American army, used to quick victories in the pastincluding the Kosovo war, was taken aback by the ferocity of the Iraqi defence.They were even more surprised at Saddam Hussein''s sudden appearance on thestreets of Baghdad where a crowd of Iraqis gathered around him shaking andkissing his hands. The second Gulf War can hardly be described asthe mother of all battles simply because the armed contest was unequal from dayone. But where the Iraqis have succeeded in outmanoeuvring the Americans hasbeen in the ''battle of winning the hearts and minds of the public''. Underdogsfrom day one, the Iraqis learnt their lessons well from the first Gulf War inwhich their television station was destroyed within the first few hours ofbattle.Determined not to repeat this mistake, the informationministry was sufficiently prepared this time around to continue telecastsdespite the most devastating applications of air power witnessed this century.Information minister Mohammed Sahaf has kept up a tirade against the coalitionforces calling them everything from ''mercenaries'' to ''columns of colonisers''.Both the coalition forces and the Saddam government have pulled out all thestops to win the propaganda war. News has emerged as the ultimate weapon of warand both sides crafted detailed strategies on how to influence eyeballs aroundthe globe. Before the war started, the Pentagon was confident that aphalanx of embedded journalists would be around to record how the US armysmashed the Saddam regime to smithereens. Permission was, therefore, granted tomore than 2,500 journalists, from across the globe, to cover every possiblenuance of this war. Of these, 500 were embedded correspondents allowed to livewith the troops and cover the war from their perspective. But since most ofthese embedded journalists are from the US, they are covering the war largelyfor US networks including CNN, NBC, Fox News and CBS. This has created a Catch22 situation with these networks often finding it difficult to draw a linebetween patriotism and objective reporting. The US networksannounced a popular uprising in Basra even as coalition troops were fighting tooccupy the town. The capture of Iraq''s strategic fort of Umm Qasar was announcednine times over. One minute Sahaf had announced that the government of Husseinwould triumph; the next minute president Bush''s spokesperson was assuring theworld that the coalition forces were cruising to victory. There wereaccusations and counter-accusations. One day there was a rumour that Iraq''sdeputy prime minister Tariq Aziz had been killed, the next day he appeared onIraqi television giving an interview in his usual bustling and aggressive style.One day, we were informed that Saddam''s cabinet members had defected, the nextday Iraqi TV was zeroing in on their smiling faces. These conflicting reportshad French president Jac-ques Chirac shrug his shoulders in dismay and insistthe French roll out an alternative to this dominant Anglo/US perspective.Mr Chirac has not learnt a day too soon the importance of imagesserving as force-multipliers. Arab channels learnt this lesson well during thewar in Afghanistan with Al Jazeera emerging as the mouthpiece of Osamabin Laden.Today, Al Jazeera has been joined by a slew of Arabchannels which are presently feeding information to large parts ofthe world. Many of these channels are shown via Arabsat which has a footprintover south-west India, especially Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and in J&K inthe north. Gulf War I was also shown via the same satellite and, during the lastdecade, these Arab channels have continued to strengthen their presence,especially in India. Worldwide Al Jazeera is beaming to an audience of over 50million. Indian Muslims may not be reacting openly to the war but,like their counterparts abroad, they are depending on non-American broadcastersto provide a different perspective. It was Al Jazeera which first telecastinterviews with five captured American soldiers. Again Al Jazeera showeduniformed corpses of US soldiers lying on the floor. It was the Lebanese,Egyptian and Qatar channels that showed footage of the after-effects of thebombing of the Al Shaab market in Baghdad which left several civilians dead andmany more wounded. The American may claim that this was a result of amalfunctioning Iraqi missile but the average Iraqi blames America for thetragedy. Again it was Al Jazeera which highlighted how the killingof two American marines in Nasiriya saw the Americans retaliate by attackingcivilian areas with cluster bombs killing 10 and wounding 200. Thesuccess of this media warfare can be gauged from the fact that waves of anti-warprotests have erupted around the globe. The American talk of reconstructionsounds hollow to the ears of thousands of Iraqis and others across theworld who have seen America''s unbridled pursuit of power take an unacceptablyhigh human toll.