Having worked inside mainstream U.S. media during the beginning of the “War on Terror” and run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the differences in today’s war coverage are dizzying to me.
Civilians
While covering Russia’s horrific aggression in Ukraine, there is a real focus — as there always should be — on civilian victims of war. Today, the focus on that essential aspect of the Russian invasion is prominent and continuous — from civilian deaths to the trauma felt by civilians as missiles strike nearby.
The U.S. military launched the invasions, and civilian deaths and agony were not considered. After the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 on false pretenses — made possible by U.S. mainstream media complicity that I witnessed firsthand — civilian deaths were largely ignored and undercountedThrough the years.
Shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan on October 2001, leaked directivesFrom CNN’s management to its correspondents and anchors showed that the network was intent on playing down and rationalizing the killing and maiming of Afghan civilians by the U.S. military. One memo instructed CNN anchors that if they ever referenced Afghan civilian victims, they needed to quickly remind their audience that “these U.S. military actions are in response to a terrorist attack that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in the U.S.” Such language was mandatory, said the memo: “Even though it may start sounding rote, it is important that we make this point each time.”
Just a few weeks later, what CNN viewer had forgotten it?
It is notable that the U.S. has only briefly covered Afghan civilian casualties on television. New York Times reporter wrote: “In the United States, television images of Afghan bombing victims are fleeting, cushioned between anchors or American officials explaining that such sights are only one side of the story. In the rest of the world, however, images of wounded Afghan children curled in hospital beds or women rocking in despair over a baby’s corpse, beamed via satellite by the Qatar-based network, Al Jazeera, or CNN International, are more frequent and lingering.”
The coverage of the civilian casualties was nearly non-existent for decades. April 2013 was the last month. NBC anchor Lester Holt did a summing-up report on Afghanistan as “America’s longest war” by offering one and only one casualty figure: “2,300 American deaths.” There was no mention of the more than 70,000 Afghan civilian deaths since 2001, and no mention of a UN studyThe study found that in the first six months of 2019, the U.S., its allies and aerial bombing killed more civilians than both the Taliban and its allies.
The war on terror spread to other countries, but the U.S. mainstream media remained largely unchanged. uninterestedU.S. war on civilians has left many dead and drone strikes.
International Law
International law clearly makes it illegal to use military force or invading another country’s territory, unless they are authorized by the UN Security Council. In coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. mainstream media have correctly, repeatedly and without equivocation invoked international law and declared it illegal, as they did when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.
The U.S. mainstream media has almost never invoked international law when it invaded or attacked other countries in recent decades. That was surely the case in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion — unlike in Britain, where major media prominently discussed the reality that invading Iraq would be a crime against international law unless authorized by a Security Council resolution. The following is a BBC television specialSix weeks before the invasion, Tony Blair, for instance, was cross-examinedAntiwar citizens also supported this point.
When the U.S. invaded Panama, possibly the bloodiest drug bust of history, in 1989, the mainstream media in the U.S. made a statement. concerted effort to ignore international law and its violation — as well as the slaughter of civilians.
Imperialism
The imperialism is a major issue in the country’s mainstream media. Last Friday night MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell indignantly and repeatedly denounced “Russian imperialism.”
As a lifelong opponent of imperialism, I’m also indignant that a powerful country like Russia is using force to try to impose its will and its own chosen leadership on the Ukrainian people. But I’ve never heard O’Donnell or anyone at MSNBC denounce U.S. imperialism. Indeed, the existence of something called “U.S. imperialism” is so adamantly denied by mainstream U.S. media that the phrase doesn’t appear in print without scare quotes.
Despite the fact that no other country (including Russia), has come even close to ours, this stubborn refusal to recognize U.S. Imperialism persists. in the last 70 yearsIn imposing its will in changing the leadership of foreign governmentsThis can range from good to awful, and often between good and bad (for instance, Iran in 1953; Guatemala, 1954; Congo, 1960; Chile in 1973). Honduras2009 And that’s not to mention other U.S.-led regime changes (for example, Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011).
This denial persists despite the fact that the U.S. maintains 750 military bases in nearly 80 foreign countries (Russia has about 20 foreign bases, in half a dozen countries), that our military budget dwarfs that of every other country (it’s more than 12 times larger than Russia’s) and that the U.S. provides nearly 80% of the world’s weapons exports — including weapons sales and military training to 40 of the 50 most oppressive, anti-democratic governmentsThe earth.
Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, has been a frequent commentator on U.S. Imperialism in recent days. She specifically denounced Putin as anti-democratic and commented on Ukraine. Her comments are filled with hypocrisy. One reason is her key role in enabling a violent military coup regime in Honduran that ousted Manuel Zelaya, the elected President of Honduran, in 2009. Another is her role, which was largely ignored in mainstream U.S media. You can read more about it hereAnd here.)
We must all rally together support Ukrainian civilians against great-power aggression from Russia, let’s do so with the understanding that imperialism should always be opposed, that all civilian victims of wars and violent coups are worthy, whether Iraqi or Honduran or Ukrainian, and that all criminals who violate international law should be held accountable, whether they’re based in Moscow or Washington.
