The Polaris - North Seattle Community College Student Newspaper

Iraq war still a mystery

Ryan Hicks
Assistant Editor

     It’s difficult to form a clear thought about the war with all the noise in the background. The television screams, the newspaper roars, the magazines shout at the top of their lungs. It seems as though everyone has their own set of facts. Is it possible to figure out which ones are real?
     There are first-hand accounts, second-hand accounts, theories, statistics, “classified” information, “intentional disinformation” (allegedly disclosed to the public for our own “protection”) and misinformation for political purposes (remember the president’s major reason for going to war in Iraq - the weapons of mass destruction?)
     From the media, there are persuasive stories for action, inaction, and neutrality. There are cries for patriotism in the name of country and cries for dissent in the name of fighting global economic policies. There are lies, and somewhere in there I hope, are truths.
     I joined the U.S. Navy in 2000 to escape an inconsequential life in the Midwest of drug culture and boredom. I was on board the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Gulf when the war on Iraq started. I watched the planes take off from the flight deck as part of the “shock and awe” campaign. Later, I was there when President Bush flew on board to tell us, during his “mission accomplished” speech, that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” I saw his tears during his speech. I lined up to shake his hand as he left, to see what he looked like up close.
     As a Navy journalist on the Lincoln, I was ultimately required to write happy articles - stories that had a pleasant ending and made people feel good about themselves. I was required to write nonsense about how hard the cooks worked to make tasty, nutritionally balanced meals. Many of the cooks did work hard - feeding 5,500 people three meals a day on an aircraft carrier is painful - but the food was still horrible. Lots of us preferred stale Ramen noodles. I hated my job; I was paid to be a liar. During an uncertain war, who feels good about being an in-house propagandist, no matter how insignificant?
     In August, I was released from the Navy early because of a temporary administrative action that allowed members to “voluntarily separate” with an honorable discharge up to six months before their enlistment was up. With my department’s blessing, I got out six months and one day before my end-of-service date.
     Many months later, I still don’t know what any of it means. I am 22 years old; many of the soldiers dying in Iraq are younger than me. I wonder if they know what they are fighting for, if they think of themselves as pawns in a political game, or if they believe in what they are doing.
     And the information I get from the news, from the writers and the newscasters - how many of them are liars like I was? How many of them know enough about what is going on to be fair and accurate? During the “media embed” on the Lincoln, there was a classic moment when all of the media personnel were put in the TV studio with me and not allowed to leave; the admiral was talking in the hangar bay with the crew and didn’t want them to be there.
     At one point before the war, Tommy Franks came aboard for a visit, and in a memorable quote, said that we were going to “kick Saddam’s ass.” He apparently wasn’t briefed that there were a few reporters aboard at that time, or didn’t care, but the Public Affairs Department convinced those present not to print that statement.
     “It’s just the general talking to his troops. You don’t need to print that.”
     It’s a game of word play, and a puppet show, men and women die behind the stage, and there isn’t enough available truth to know if the deaths are for a “good” cause, or simply for someone’s ignorant political benefit, as history has often shown war to be.
     As of Jan. 10, 495 US troops have been killed in the war in Iraq - an average of 1.67 per day (war casualty summary at www.lunaville.org.)
     Smoking-related illness kills an average of 1,200 Americans per day (www.thetruth.com).
     “Welcome to crazy world"

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