The Prism of War Michael Yon's Battle for Mosul (he is an author currently in Iraq) is an account of 25th ID operations in that city. H...
The Prism of War
Michael Yon's Battle
for Mosul (he is an author currently in Iraq) is an account of 25th ID
operations in that city. His account begins with the end of the Second Battle of
Falluja, in late 2004, when "displaced fighters streamed from their nests
in Falluja, scuttled into hiding throughout Iraq, and began spreading the
disease of violence. Many landed in Mosul." For a time, they rampaged
through the city and at one point infiltrated a suicide bomber into an American
base, killing 22. They didn't spare the civilians either, and after killing
every policeman they could, started on the firemen.
Yon focuses his story on the 1/24 of 25 ID, the 1st Battalion,
24th Infantry Regiment "Deuce Four". As they hunted down the
enemy, the men of the 1/24th were aware the enemy was also seeking them, in
particular aiming to ram car bombs, known as VIEDs, into their Stryker armored
vehicles, capable of killing everyone aboard. Then Yon describes an incident of
some historical interest, which I'll get to in a moment. While accompanying the
battalion commander, LTC Erik Kurilla, on April 23, 2005, a large explosion was
heard in the distance. A VBIED had succeeded in hitting a Stryker. He narrates:
We loaded the four Strykers, closed the ramps, and rolled. The attack site
was three minutes away. ... There might be follow-on suicide attacks, or
IEDs planted on target, or perhaps dozens of insurgents with machine guns and
rockets might be waiting to ambush us. ... Within minutes of our arrival, the
men had wrestled out their severely injured friends and were climbing off the
burning Stryker, separating into teams that shored up defensive positions
while others scoured the area searching for other IEDs. ... Meanwhile,
American sniper teams had found perches around the blast site, and Army attack
helicopters circled low overhead, at times so close that I could practically
see the patches on the pilots' uniforms ...
Just a few weeks earlier, when another of Kurilla's Strykers was hit by an
SVBIED, a camera crew arrived on scene. As a man pumped an AK, an American
sniper killed him, wounding the cameraman in the process. When it was later
learned that the cameraman was a stringer for CBS who had close ties with the
enemy, CBS apologized on the air.
Just as we pulled out, people arrived with cameras and began shooting
footage of the scene. One of the men, whom we later learned was an Associated
Press correspondent with known ties to the enemy, is dead now. The associate
scavenging with him was seriously wounded.
As near as I can tell, Yon's reference to an event "a few weeks earier"
is an incident described in the Guardian
on April 7th involving a CBS photographer.
Reporters Sans Frontieres today called for an investigation after a
freelance cameraman working for CBS in Iraq was shot by US troops who mistook
his camera for a gun ... near the northern city of Mosul. It is the second
time US forces have mistaken a camera for a weapon ... RSF called the shooting
"unacceptable" and called for a "thorough and transparent
investigation". "Once again the US forces have targeted a journalist
just doing his job," the press freedom organisation said. "We again
call on this same army to be more vigilant and discerning in order to avoid
these unacceptable blunders." The cameraman (was hit) during an exchange
of shots between Iraqi insurgents and members of the 1st brigade of the US
25th infantry division.
The "Deuce Four" is part of the 1st brigade of the 25 ID and it is
more than likely that these two events are the same. The CBS cameraman was
subsequently detained as a suspected insurgent according to the Associated
Press.
BAGHDAD, Iraq Apr 8, 2005 — A cameraman carrying CBS press credentials
was detained in Iraq earlier this week on suspicion of insurgent activity, the
U.S. military said Friday. ... A spokesman for Task Force Freedom, Capt. Mark
Walter, said the reporter suffered minor wounds and was with "a number of
people" involved in the shootout. Walter said the reporter was detained
immediately after the incident, in part because of statements from witnesses
to the battle.
Correspondent
Jim Stewart of CBS filed this followup story on April 8: "the military
became suspicious when they examined the contents of the camera and found
pictures of what appears to be the aftermath of four separate attacks by
insurgents using IEDs, improvised explosive devices. The footage, taken so soon
after the attacks, suggest the cameraman had to have foreknowledge that the
attacks would take place, officials told Stewart."
Of all the incidents described in Yon's Battle for Mosul, the only
incident which made the headline news for an extended period was the wounding
and detention of the Associated Press photographer. The dramatic events related
by Yon: the fights with the insurgents, the desperate rescues -- recede
completely into the background in mainstream media stories. By a strange process
of substitution what is merely a footnote in Yon's story, the account of the
cameraman, becomes the staple of the wire news while the main events of Yon's
story shrink to become footnotes in the newspaper coverage of the photographer's
saga.
Every information consumer picks up a newspaper to learn the truth. But what
is the truth in a situation where a story's message can so radically alter with
the point of view? The existence of political 'bias' alone is an insufficient
explanation because the conservative press just as gleefully dwelt on the CBS
cameraman's dubious affiliations. I can only think that objects and events
viewed through the prism of the media are distorted in some fundamental way, so
that the death of millions in Darfur can dwindle to insignificance while the
"wardrobe malfunction" of a singer at a sporting event assumes the
proportions of an international event. Nor are there any easy transformations
one can apply to restore matters to their correct relative importance because it
is hard to contemporaneously judge what really matters. The intelligence
analyst's curse is that he rarely knows which of the myriad facts before him are
the truly important ones. He has the consolation of knowing that everything will
be 20/20 in hindsight. One of the attractions of reading history is discovering
the truth long after it might have helped.
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