SAYING IT...
It has been said on the Evening News this week that the War with Iraq has “already started.”
It has, and that fact comes as a shock to some people who were not aware of the fact that we have been conducting air raids on Iraqi military targets for several months. No one denies that fact. They just don't talk about it. It is what has been called a “Low Level War” but it is combat with an enemy none the less. You have been listening to accounts of such raids in enemy territory - a radar installation most recently, and other -“military” targets the past few months- in the so-called “no-fly” zone which makes it all an enforcement actions designed to keep the peace rather than to be attacks.. No one seems to get too worked up about it and neither side gets excited about such incidents, so they continue and they are war-like actions in spite of their guarded nature which might call the police actions designed to maintain the terms agreed upon at the end of the Gulf War.
TV's prime talking heads are now using roughly-cut statements which say it in the form of a question, as a rule. Some are asking if listeners think the dropping of what they are calling “propaganda” leaflets over Iraq. Are such planes engaged in war-like actions? To think of such informational materials as “propaganda” is a throw back to other times but that does not keep critics from using such pointedly derogatory terminology.
The tip-toe stance in regard to existing pre-war activities reminds me of a temporary ban which was quietly set up some years because the president was out of the country and the new people were asked to refrain from mentioning it. The media complied, but one radio commentator gave daily teasers, however.“He is not at the White House! He is not at Camp David? Where in the world might he be tonight? A pause and the next news was carefully date-lined.
A petty thing,of course, but such pettiness can prove to be costly when we are in a wartime attitude. We, by our very nature, oppose and resist censorship or even official guidance, in any form. We may not like it and think it to be very un-American to be told what to do. In our preference for such freedom, we must also accept the individual responsibility with comes with such a treasure.
It could well be that, in effect, the war has already started. Those who believe so, should have courage enough to step forward and say so if they wish to do, but to make a subtle game of it using hints and suggestions is dangerous. We had a slogan in another era saying: “Loose Lips Sink Ships!” They could and did.
Half-baked ideas, set forth as being complete, can bring down planes and entire civilizations. It is important that we start listening carefully to what we hear and to due consideration to who is supposed to have said it as well as who actually said it. We must fine-tune our ears to hear what is being said as well as the manner in which it is being presented.
A.L.M. February 19, 2003 [c545wds]
