Covering Iraq: Trying To Connect

Allen Pizzey On A Baghdad Correspondent's Struggle To Talk To The Audience

(CBS)  By CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey

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As I sit typing this, the rattle of heavy machine gun fire is coming from across the Tigris River, on whose banks our office sits. It began with the dull thud of an explosion, probably an IED by the sound of it. The fire fight has been going on intermittently for about 45 minutes. Somebody is having a bad day, but I have no idea why, what kind of battle it is, where it is or between whom.

Even if I did know all that, it probably wouldn't make the news. It's just another firefight.

Trying to explain Iraq in a way that American viewers can relate to is a challenge at the best of times. It becomes even more acute when you start the day by watching American newscasts. Thanks to clever technicians who can pull down signals from European and other international satellite channels —— and access Arabic networks that like to carry the U.S. evening newscasts one after the other early the following morning — it' possible to report from here and see what else is of interest to the viewers one is supposed to inform.

How well we do that informing is for others to decide. What is depressingly clear is that what seems important here is far removed from what viewers in the U.S. seem to be concerned about.

The pet food "scandal" is a case in point. As far as I can tell from what is coming through the dust-encrusted TV monitors in our office, a dozen or so pets have died, apparently from eating well-known brands of cat or dog food. No doubt the owners paid premium prices for high nutritional value, so they have a right to be upset that instead of the glossy coats and tail-wagging promised by the ads they got organ failure. Being a pet owner, I can understand being upset when one dies.

How 12 dead animals in a country the size of the U.S. rates with the sliding scale of mayhem here is what I'm finding hard to gauge. When only 12 human bodies are found on any given morning in Baghdad with marks of the kind of torture the ASPCA would quite rightly have a pet owner in court for, it is judged as "progress" for the security plan.

In one of the pet food stories the bereaved owner of a cat said she was planning to sue the pet food company because it was something she had to do for the sake of her dead pet. How that helps the pet is not clear.

Lawsuits have not taken hold here yet — not least because the courts barely function. But even if they did, settling issues with an AK-47 is still more common than hiring a lawyer with blow-dried hair to fight your case in court and then court the media outside it. Come to think of it, maybe it's not that AKs are simpler; it's the fact that lawyers can't stand about in the street and pontificate for the 6 o'clock news. The camera crews would be shot or kidnapped and the crowd car-bombed.

But if the justice system and tort lawyers ever do get up to speed and take to the litigious aspect of the democracy that has, or rather is in the process of being, brought to them they'll be swamped with work for years to come — if only by following the example of the lawsuit being brought against Sudan.

That one is by families of sailors killed when the USS Cole was rammed by a suicide bomber in a harbor in Yemen a few years ago.

If Americans can sue a country their government does not like for something that happened in another country, what about Iraqis who have been victims of "collateral damage" from bombs? Their list of lawsuit targets is inexhaustible.

And on the subject of targets, a short while ago a rocket slammed into the "Green Zone" or, as the Americans prefer to call it, the "IZ" short for "International Zone", a word game that allows them to pretend someone other than America runs the place. The rocket, fired from across the river, slammed in about 50 yards from where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were meeting the press.

Pool pictures from the scene showed the U.N. chief ducking, a not unnatural or unwise move, and then looking somewhat puzzled.

That may have been because his host announced that "nothing is wrong."

In fact, except for a few pieces of plaster falling off the ceiling and some slight injuries reported from people who had the bad luck to be outside at the time, nothing was.

Compare that to what would have happened if a similar explosion had occurred in Washington. If the event that precipitated the war is anything to judge by, President Bush would have been hustled onto a plane to fly around for a few hours, Vice President Dick Cheney would have disappeared to an "undisclosed location" for a few months and the entire U.S. Capitol would have been put on full security alert — if not shut down. One shudders to think what the rest of the political elite would have done.

Here, the press conference resumed.

You see the problem in making the connections?

[newsman315]

Allen:

I respect your opinion vis-a-vis the interest Americans show (or don't show) in the continuing war in Iraq. But I differ when you seem to imply that the attention being given the pet food deaths is more than it deserves. On your own newscast late last week, a state health agency (in NJ, I believe) projected that thousands of other animals might be impacted based on what they found in that one state.

Wars and other stories of conflict or tragedy eventually elicit the reaction of "what can I really do about it?" from some of those who watch with a disassociated perspective. The pet food story has the potential to hit so much closer to home for so many viewers that it's easy to see why news executives give that story the kind of attention it's been getting.

Perhaps we should care more about the tragedy of the war in Iraq--but, in reality, many people don't and they just want it to be over and our soldiers brought back home. The latest daily story about a car bombing or suicide attack has left many an American viewer cold with his interest waning even further.

Allen, you are doing a tremendous job under the worst of circumstance day after day. And I hope you continue to provide the kind of reporting this story deserves--even as it struggles to find its audience.

[bushmaster83]

Great thoughts Alan,
It is extremely hard to put other non-war related stories in context with the devistation occuring in Iraq.
USA stay strong, and keep up the good work Alan.

[liviaggie]

What is more clearly depressing is how their are supposedly "concerned" pet owners such as this Allen Pizzey who could care less about the whole food recall scandal. The war in Iraq cannot be compared to the food recall scandal. The two situations are not even close in comparison. You can blame the President or Congress for not pulling the troops out sooner. I am sickened that so many US soldiers have died so far in Iraq. But that does not mean the loss of a beloved pet hurts less to some people. To have the audacity to assume that more people should not care about the well being of animals just proves how inhumane you really are. Alot of innocent animals have died through no fault of their own only because they were fed contaminated food. Put the blame where it should be placed; and let people mourn the loss of loved ones, both human and pet.

[asacquaf]

We seem to never learn fron history. To truly occupy a country takes multiple times the ammount of troops we have there now. We had over 1/2- a million men in Germany and Japan after WWII, You have to be the police, fire department utility department, city council, everything for them. We have had absolutely zero help from most of the civilized world in Iraq. Even though we may have made Iraq worse, we were at least concerned about the genocide going on under Hussein to try to fix things. You see in Sudan how nothing changes because no one has the sand to force change. But the real thing missed here is that many Iraqis themselves have chosen to become violent, they have killed anyone who advocated peace and prosperity. Until they learn themselves the terrible cost of civil war, until they finally learn violence is not the best way, this will continue. Ireland,now that it has some semblance of peace, has benefitted from new factories and businesses moving in. When we had our revolution, we had a George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, real leaders who thought of more than just themselves, men who had a vision and purpose. All the Iraqis have left is power hungry thugs like Al-Sadr. Their future will ultimately be in their hands, so I hope someday they choose to turn away from the militias and bombings, and decide it is better to live in peace and harmony.

[bildooreilly]

Best 9-11 movie yet, proves the complicity of the media and the goverment in the 9-11 attacks. The WTC wasn't even hit by actual planes, only illusions of them, animations shown to you by the major media and this movie proves it. The whole thing was a massive covert psychops operation, well planned and practiced in advance which the movie also details...

You can try pasting this link together (CBS "news") always breaks up links, or you can go to video.google.com and do a search for "911 Octopus" I urge you all to at least go watch the first 20 minutes of this great movie, the 9-11 movie of all 9-11 movies....

If you don't think there's a conspiracy, you're stupid.

911 octopus
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8205707050292695515

[feelfree1]

Re: "Covering Iraq: Trying To Connect"

CBS and other mainstream Western media outlets have so actively collaborated with the Bush regime, deceiving the U.S. public at nearly every step, along the brutal and disgraceful path of the illegal war of aggresion against Iraq.

I doubt that they will ever regain enough credibility to be considered as a very reliable source of news and information.

Here is a new music video that I thought was appropriate to this story somehow:

"The Skull and the Bone"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bmay2mn8QxA

[toolmangler-2009]

Thanks for the great read 'vbnvbn' For those that missed it, go here. You may have to repair the link if the lousy comment column breaks it up.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17725245

[j-whitman]

BENJAMIN FERENCZ
Ferencz was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war crimes after World War II and is available for a limited number of interviews. He said today: "It's a sad commentary when the president of the United States has apparently no knowledge or concern for international law. We said at Nuremberg that we would be bound by laws -- that they would apply equally to all. But it's a violation of international law to go to war without the approval of the [U.N.] Security Council when you are not under armed attack. The U.S. has violated that in its attack on Iraq, as well as other times. The Bush administration has repudiated the International Criminal Court, when over 90 nations want to carry on the legacy of the Nuremberg tribunals, but the administration is trying to cripple it in its cradle."

[j-whitman]

Benjamin B. Ferencz, Nuremburg prosecutor, On the subject of terrorism (Note the similarities on our reaons for going into Iraq)


One cannot try an idea, nor can it be killed by a gun. An idea must be replaced by a better idea. We must stop glorifying killing "the enemy" and replace the existing war-ethic with a new "peace-ethic."All must learn that law is better than war. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg held that aggressive war is the "supreme international crime." That was affirmed by the United Nations and upheld in many legal decisions. Nazi leaders argued that they acted only in self-defense against a presumed attack by the Soviet Union. Their justification for mass murder was rejected and responsible leaders were hanged after a fair trial. Who is to try those who continue to use such invalid and deceptive justifications for sending young persons and countless civilians to their death? --

[j-whitman]

Republicans just back from Iraq compare it to Detroit & Chicago -- Like 3 years ago they where saying "Iraq is so nice, I'll take my family there" --- I say put tie lying idiots back on the plane with a gun & send them right back.

[ikez78]

I applaud your line of thought here as a journalist but the real concern for Iraqi officials and U.S. forces in Iraq is how to disarm a REAL enemy that isn't going to just "go away."

Your real concern is to tell the American people how that looks and how it's working out but it seems as though only bits and pieces of the overall story are broadcast. Sure, carbombs went off and mortars were fired today but were any bomb making factories disarmed? Any terrorist leaders caught/killed? What can be done to disarm people who continue using children for carbomb attacks? What can U.S./Iraqi forces do to be more successful in riding Iraq of the human debris that plagues that country (the suicide bombers and those targeting civilians day in day out)?

These are the more important questions one SHOULD be asking. Not selfish stuff such as "me, me, me, the reporter needs this or that."

[terribayless-2009]

vbnvbn
Great article!

[gwagener]

Allen Pizzey,
Pet owners are going to be sooo mad at you for trivializing their trivial tragity.
Of course, these people could go out and buy 5 animals of the same breed and odds are they will get at least 1 with a personality that is indistiguisable form the original, but they still treat the loss of an animal as a major trama.

[inventagod]

Hey - To the ****-and-moan reporter who is hunkered down in hiding in Iraq...

Our own President said 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!'

What are you complaining about? The rebuilding is going well, with a palatial US embassy taking shape!

The Bu$h administration, and the Pentagon branch of US government has told us everything is working, and democracy and peace are decending over the entire Middle East! The surge worked, for God's sake, so why does this reporter continue to lie and call our present administration to shame? Maybe he is just another insurgent, lying to make the invasion look like a bad thing... I say, get this liar home, and let another, fresh reporter take his place - maybe we will get some news fit for Fox to report tonite...

[lookindeep-2009]

Thanks for showing us how ridiculous our (the media's?) obsession is with Anna Nicole, when Iraqis face death around every corner and our president is leading us deeper into a country that we completly shattered.

[terrapin78]

It reminds me of "Apocalypse Now".

When asked who is in charge here, the reply was "Aren't you?"