I don't know why I keep sending these things, they never publish them.
This is the letter that I was responding to:
Northbrook -- I can't imagine that any of our soldiers consider it an honor or privilege to be fighting in Fallujah, but then to have the news footage of an apparent execution by a U.S. Marine of an Iraqi shown on TV is nothing more than the news media undermining their efforts and selling them out. These images breed hatred and resentment toward U.S. troops, will keep them there longer and makes their job that much more deadly.
I suggest that if the journalists working in Iraq can't conduct themselves more responsibly, the U.S. military should put them on a short leash.
My response:
As the sister of a Navy pilot who has fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan, I was outraged by Bruce Heisinger's letter last weekend stating that the media's reporting of the brutal execution of an injured, unarmed Iraqi soldier was somehow "selling out" America's troops and suggesting that the US government should put the media on a "short leash."
If Mr. Heisinger paid attention to recent reports out of Iraq, he would know the situation there is so bad that most foreign reporters, even in Baghdad, cannot venture outside their hotel rooms and rely on incredibly brave Iraqi "stringers" to bring them news of what's actually going on in the war. It would be impossible for the US government to put them on a "shorter leash" than the Iraqi insurgents have them on. Besides, if Mr. Heisinger hasn't already noticed, the US isn't in control of anything in Iraq right now.
But what has angered me even more is that people in this country cannot make up excuses fast enough for this marine, who seems to have acted in violation of the Geneva Convention and just about every international treaty regarding conduct during war. If Americans had seen insurgents killing an unarmed, wounded American soldier in such a brutal way, they would have been outraged and screaming about violations of international law. I agree that war is horrific and forever changes those who are involved, but then perhaps people should take a good hard look at our President, who pushed to send our troops into this seemingly unwinable war without sufficient numbers or equipment to do the job properly. And if Mr. Heisinger sees fit to criticize the media for "selling out" US troops, perhaps he should know that the report last week from John's Hopkins University, which estimated that the number if innocent Iraqi civilians killed in this war as nearing 100,000, has received almost no play in the media. Apparently, the media has determined that the only important lives lost in Iraq are those of the Americans.
I am sickened by the thought Mr. Heisinger's suggestion that the government be allowed to tell the media what it may report. The media is the "fourth estate" of Democracy and serves as the only effective watchdog on the government on behalf of the American people. Perhaps if the media had been a bit bolder about questioning the Bush Administration in the wake of 9/11, we wouldn't be in this mess in Iraq. Allowing the media to have a say over what the media can report sounds more like something that would have occurred in Nazi Germany in the 1930s rather than in the United States of America in the year 2004.
Where do people like this come from? I really have to stop reading the "Perspective" section of the Trib--my blood pressure goes up 10 points every time.