Two major articles in The New York Review of Books, current issue of December 16 2004, about the war in Iraq and how it is being reported - commentary by Tony Kevin and weblink references

Two most important articles appear in the current issue, December 16 2004, of the New York Review of Books, by Chris Hedges and by Michael Massing.

Together they illustrate – far more powerfully and eloquently than I am able to do – the concerns I have been trying to express over this past month on my website and elsewhere (see various recent files) about the real horrors of the ongoing US-led coalition assault on the people of Iraq, as exemplified by the attack on the city of Fallujah – our Guernica atrocity; and how most Western media reporting and commentary on the war is systematically shielding the populations of the coalition military allies in Iraq (US, Britain and Australia) from knowing the truth about what is really being done by us or in our name in Iraq.

Hedges and Massing are men of eminent professional reputations in the US as war correspondents and top-level teachers of journalism studies – see their bios below. It would be ridiculous for pro-war newspapers like The Australian or its stables of commentators, eg Janet Albrechtsen, to try to challenge or dismiss the importance of what is said in these two compelling and authoritative articles.

And make no mistake – these articles are not just about the conduct of the US war in Iraq and how it is being reported by US media. So much of what is said in these articles applies to Britain and Australia also. There is (I hope) still a difference at the level of practice, but it is only a difference in degree. The same tendencies to gross brutality in war, and to the media methodically sanitising the truth about it from our publics, have been at work here in Australia since we invaded Iraq on 18 March 2003. These two articles should serve as wake-up calls both to our responsible military leaders – if we have any left - and to our media.

Please read them from the NYRB website, to which links are supplied below. Copyright prevents me from reproducing them. But I suggest you file them on your databanks, as I do not know for how long they may remain readily accessible on the NYRB website.

 

On War", book review article by Chris Hedges, in New York Review of Books, Vol 51 No 20, 16 December 2004, pages 8-14.

Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War

by Evan Wright, Putnam, 354 pp., US$24.95

The Fall of Baghdad, by Jon Lee Anderson, Penguin, 389 pp., US$24.95

Website link: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17630

Feature: "Iraq, the Press and the Election", by Michael Massing, in New York Review of Books, Vol 51 No 20, 16 December 2004, pages 26-32.

Website link : http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17633

 

Here are the authors’ biodata, and the article introductions from the NYRB website Homepage :

 

Chris Hedges, a reporter for The New York Times, was a war correspondent for nearly two decades in Central America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans. He is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. His new book, Losing Moses on the Freeway: America's Broken Covenant with the Ten Commandments, will be published in June 2005. (December 2004).

"Those who cover war dine out on the myth about war and the myth about themselves as war correspondents. Yes, they say, it is horrible, and dirty and ugly; for many of them it is also glamorous and exciting and empowering. They look out from the windows of Humvees for a few seconds at Iraqi families, cowering in fear, and only rarely see the effects of the firepower. When they are forced to examine what bullets, grenades, and shells do to human bodies they turn away in disgust or resort to black humor to dehumanize the corpses. They cannot stay long, in any event, since they must leave the depressing scene behind for the next mission. The tragedy is replaced, as it is for us at home who watch it on television screens, by a light moment or another story. It becomes easier to forget that another human life has been ruined beyond repair, that what is unfolding is not only tragic for tens of thousands of Iraqis but for the United States …".

Michael Massing, a contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, writes frequently on the press and foreign affairs. He is the author of Now They Tell Us, based on his articles on the press and the Iraq war in The New York Review of Books.

"In the end, the war in Iraq did not have the decisive impact on the election that many had expected. In many ways, George Bush's victory seems to have confirmed the fact that large numbers of voters in America today are very conservative, dominated by strong attachments to God, country, and the traditional family. At the same time, it's not clear to what extent the public was aware of just how bad things had gotten in Iraq. For while there was much informative reporting on the war, a number of factors combined to shield Americans from its most brutal realities. A look at these factors can help to understand some neglected aspects of George Bush's victory. …"

Please, read these articles in full, and think about what they say to we Australians.

Tony Kevin, Canberra, 2 December 2004