The Sanitized War in Iraq

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The Sanitized War in Iraq

In his massive work, the Iliad, Homer retells the story of the last days of Troy, the final year of the Trojan War. It was a myth kernel that had been passed down for generations by poets all over the Greek world, and even today we’re not sure whether a man named Homer actually wrote the Iliad, or whether it’s a compilation of many Trojan War myths set down in written form much later than Homer’s time.

Whatever it is, however, there’s no doubt that the story of Achilles and Hector, among other Greek and Trojan heroes, was a didactic myth which eventually became an instructive tool for the values of heroism to be emulated by Greek young men hundreds of years after the war took place.

In fact, the valor of Achilles was the hallmark of what the Greeks called arete, or excellence. And for Achilles this meant excellence on the battlefield. Indeed, the character of Achilles is determined and defined by what he does on the battlefield, even to the point that his concept of honor would have been at stake had he chosen not to participate in the expedition to return Helen to her husband, Menelaus.

Throughout the Iliad, then, Homer vividly describes the exploits of his heroes, and especially in the final scenes which involve the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles. In great detail we’re told how spears pierce various body parts, how blood flows, how viscera are revealed, how heroes die. It is gruesome beyond bearing at some points, and yet this is a story of war. And war is gruesome, not only for those who fight and die, but for those who are left behind and have to deal with the blood, gore and death they see occurring on the battlefield.

For Homer, war is not sanitary. Nor is his report of the deaths of heroes sanitized. In short, war, despite being a framework for valor, was not something to be taken lightly. Nor was it a game of virtual reality. It was atrociously serious, a deadly enterprise.

In Homer’s time, of course, men were fighting with spears, knives or arrows and riding around in chariots. It was close combat of the most horrid sort, and there was nothing more humiliating for a vanquished warrior than to have his armor stripped from his body after he had been slain.

Today, however, things are different. Much different. Instead of spears and arrows, our present warriors have aircraft with which to soften up the enemy. Smart bombs can pinpoint a target and take it out, while leaving surrounding buildings intact. No longer riding in chariots, our present day invaders plow through enemy territory in massive tanks and carry missile launchers to seek out the enemy at a distance.

Yet, in the end, it inevitably boils down to men and women in uniform eventually meeting other men and women in uniform in what passes for hand to hand combat. Rifles instead of spears, to be sure, but close combat nevertheless.

And just as in Homer’s time, guts are spilled, body parts are severed, people are blown up, and blood flows. Also as in Homer’s time, women are left husbandless, and children are made orphans. Cities are bombarded beyond recognition, while water, food, and electricity become luxuries of the past. People wander the streets aimlessly, sometimes looking for loved ones, sometimes as though participating in some hallucinatory meander to nowhere. Such is the theme of Euripides’ “Trojan Women,” which should be must reading for anyone who relishes armed conflict.

Yet what do we in America know of this? What images are we seeing of the war in Iraq? Are we seeing picture after picture of young men and women being carted in stretchers from the battlefield? Absolutely not. Are we seeing pictures of dead or wounded marines who have fallen in battle. No way. Are we seeing shots of the havoc wrought in Iraqi cities and towns? People crying for water and food? Not much.

We learned many things from the disastrous war in Vietnam, but perhaps what those in power most learned was that unending images of death, disease and generally gruesome conditions in that war awakened the American people to the fact that this was not a game. And we began to question the wisdom of sending thousands of troops into battle to be slaughtered and brought home in body bags.

But in this highly scripted Iraqi war, when was the last time you saw a body bag or coffin filled with some American soldier being brought home? When was the last time you heard a body count of the dead? When was the last time you saw some valiant young man with blood dripping down his leg, his arm or from his head? You just don’t see those heroic images of war anymore. And with good reason.

Simply told, it’s bad press and lousy PR. And so, for all their “embedded” reporters, the networks, and especially the cable networks, are offering us 24 hours a day the most sanitized war ever fought. It’s as though the war has become some virtual reality computer game in which the good guys always win and the bad guys (or evildoers) are slaughtered. Talking heads, briefings from Centcom, and limited reports from the field take the place of the gory goings on that represent the truth of war.

Meanwhile, those reporters who violate the strict military admonitions against actually telling what they see and what they know is happening are ousted or fired by the networks. There is a sanitized script, written by the Pentagon, and strictly enforced. No gory details, no pictures of wounded or dead soldiers, no body bags. Nothing but positive, “on to Baghdad” reporting. In fact, just yesterday Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was railing at the some in the press for calling the situation in Iraq “chaotic.” There is no chaos, he said. It’s merely “untidy” over there. The room just needs a little dusting.

The problem, of course, is that our young military men and women aren’t fighting and dying in defense of their country. They are not fighting a valorous war to keep America safe. Rather they and the immense power that attends them have been unleashed on a dubious enemy because a small group of sinister men in the Pentagon and White House have unabashedly decided that America’s vision for the future is world domination. Our way or the highway.

What we are fighting, then, is a political war. And with this the networks are in complete collusion. In fact, except for a few small stations and a few independent newspapers, our so-called free press has been completely taken over by right wing moguls and huge corporations which owe nothing to the people and everything to the Republicans. And they certainly are not going to sacrifice financial gain for the sake of the vivid truth of war.

One such media outfit is called Clear Channel. It owns over 1200 radio and TV stations, and it’s as decidedly right wing as Fox News. It’s chairman, Lowry Mays, sits on the board of a company called Utimco, an investing firm, and he has managed to squirrel away most of the University of Texas endowment funds with companies associated with the Bush family. It’s vice chairman, Tom Hicks, was the one who engineered the purchase of the Texas Rangers and thus socked millions away in the coffers of George W. Bush. In addition, Clear Channel has funded scores of pro-war rallies in the cities in which it has stations. Richmond, Virginia is one of them.

In Richmond the Clear Channel station is WRVA, which is awash in right wing commentators. As one indication of their leanings, they told their audience that the women who were assaulted in the Air Force Academy had it coming. They had it coming! The real victims are the men who are being prosecuted for the rapes.

So, the next time you see – probably in the newspapers – a picture of some poor Iraqi woman with three children weeping for a dead father, or of an American soldier carting a wounded Iraqi child to safety, savor it! It’s one of the very few real glimpses of war that you’ll get these days. As for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other cable channels, be warned that they are feeding you mush, and pro-war mush at that.

Better yet, read the Iliad, if you really want to know what hand to hand combat is like. It’s not sanitized, but it is truthful. And gruesome.

April 12, 2003