Some notes after two days of this war:

The dominant narrative the networks are using these first two days is the one they’ve used before. They’re focusing on the individual soldier, with his parents or his wife back home waiting for him, anxious for his return. Also, in the case of the few casualties, the networks rushed to capture their grief, while repeatedly mentioning the soldiers’ sacrifice for freedom. On the other hand, Iraqi military casualties are mentioned in passing. Also, despite the Bush administration’s insistence that is a multilateral effort, both the media and the government are speaking as though the U.S. military was alone in Iraq, usually saying “our troops,” not, for instance, “the American and British troops.” As in former military efforts, both tv and radio networks are using retired U.S. generals and colonels as the main commentators, with very little use of independent military experts. The focus on getting Saddam is constant-is he dead, where is he, did we get him-this is very similar to the obsession with Osama bin Laden in late 2001, early 2002.

Aside from the coverage of protestors and their protests, very few critics of the tactics being used, or of the idea of this war, are seen on major media. There is very little footage from the rest of the Middle East, with some news of protests, but just one civilian from Iraq has been interviewed, on ABC a couple hours ago. That man, a professor at the University of Baghdad, saw the attacks on the Baathist buildings as an attack on all of Iraq, and asked Americans if they would regard an attack on the Pentagon as an attack on just the military and the government, or as an attack on the entire country. Lastly, in the footage from Sirwan’s liberation, the sight of a soldier beginning to tear down a poster of Saddam is of note. That's because we then see an Iraqi banging a shoe on the face of Saddam-in a culture where pointing your feet at someone is a deep insult, this is like burning someone in effigy. For example, in a Reuters story, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said about Rumsfeld and President Bush, "Those only deserve to be hit with shoes."
posted by Arne at 9:12 PM