But Will She Retract if She is Wrong?

This piece by Linda Heard (Oh What a Dreadful, Manipulated War) in the Palestine Chronicle is typical left-originating criticism of the war, and the use of force in general. It is remarkable in its ability to

• Believe that the inspections regime was actually working, and about to bear key fruit,

• Ignore the evil being visited on the Iraqis by the regime--as if the deaths under "containment" were all the result of evil sanctions, and had nothing to do with the way Saddam governed the country,

• Believe all the worst case scenarios about the war, and

• To assume that any positive footage will be an attempt to manipulate, rather than report.

The piece's dateline is 3/19, so it was written before the conflict started. One wonders if after seeing what has been done thusfar that she will at least partially acknowledge that the massive bombardments, and indeed the military actions in general, have been carefully aimed at the regime. I will acknowledge that there will be civilian deaths and the much dreaded collateral damage. However, as Rusmfeld pointed out yesterday, this is a very different kind of war and a bombing campaign unlike any in history. And if it turns out that we needlessly killed civilians, or that the "smart" bombs weren't so smart, I will admit that I was wrong and seek a re-examination of these types of policies. However, I suspect that the anti-warites will not retract their positions, or attempt to correct their thinking, if the war goes well and is as advertised. Even if we do inflict more daamge than advertised, one still has to wonder if the Iraqi people still won;t be better off than they were under Saddam.

Also, can she truly believe with the plethora of press on the ground, that only good stories will be written and that there won't be reports of civilian deaths? The military has taken a gamble (a good gamble, I think, but a gamble nonetheless) in "embedding" the press in various military units. They will see more than has ever been seen before. And we all know that there are enough anti-force/anti-administration/anti-Rumsfeld/anti-stuff types in the press, not to mention simple drama-seeking editors and reporters, that they will find the negative stories.

Posted by Steven Taylor at March 22, 2026 09:03 AM | TrackBack