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What I want from the Pentagon
This op-ed by Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger appeared in The Guardian.
When Wikileaks published the harrowing video of the deaths in Iraq of my colleagues Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, the world finally had the transparency it should have had about this tragedy.
It was impossible for me to watch and not feel outrage and great sorrow – but this is not about trying to tell anyone else what to feel. This is about trying to find out exactly what happened and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
What I want from the Pentagon – and from all militaries – is simple: Acknowledgment, transparency, accountability.
Acknowledgment means both understanding at headquarters and training in the field that journalists have a right to be on the battlefield, and not just those embedded with a military unit. A journalist’s mission is to provide understanding, provide context and provide the reporting that citizens deserve. That mission requires journalists cover the story from multiple angles, including ones that potentially put them in harm’s way. A war prosecuted in darkness is a war without accountability. The journalist’s role is vital for a democracy and it must be acknowledged.
Then, there must be acknowledgment that true journalists come in every race, both sexes and a multitude of nationalities. Within Reuters, our 2,800 journalists come from 80 different nationalities. They all have a right to safety.
As too many tragic deaths, including those of Namir and Saeed, have proven, soldiers in tense warfare repeatedly mistake cameras and tripods for weapons. They’re not. There must be a way of training soldiers to distinguish the forms. It is imperative to have the consciousness that the shape in the scope might not be a threat.
This reminds me of 2 things:
(1) the misrepresentation about the pro football player who gave up wealth, fame, and his life, to fight, what he thought to be terrorists involved in 9 11. He volunteered, served and was killed in “friendly fire” in Iraq. Instead of being honest, the authorities portrayed him as a hero who had died in combat rather than having been killed by American soldiers. When the true story broke,
his family testified in front of Congress, and was “mighty mad”.
The lack of honesty, and respect for the family, the loved ones, who deserve to know the truth, was unacceptable. In that case, there appeared to be an intention to keep the truth from the American public because they wanted to continue portraying him as a hero, a role model who had died in the hands of villains. There was active cover up in that case.
(2) Not that long ago, reporters were embedded in American armies. They were friends. What happened?
Could it be that the army was losing confidence in their own system? They were hiding their mistakes by default, because they themselves are having a hard time facing them, or presuming that they were honest mistakes to start with, even before any investigation?
Honest honorable mistakes no longer come first to mind upon hearing about any error. Instead, they instinctively hide everything— because of the fallout with the American public about how the war was started?
George W Bush let me down not because he made mistakes, but worse than that, to this day, he had not faced his own mistakes honorably, honestly, and continues as a “leader of dishonesty”– first to himself, then to the American people. Blaming the intelligence was lame, because there was nothing in the intelligence reports that supported what he claimed the intelligence community had said.
Obama needs to rebuild confidence in the military. Without confidence in their own integrity, their first intincts are to hide the facts, the truth. That results in the lack of transparency that is worse than before.
Just pulling out of Iraq is not enough. More leadership from their top commander in correcting the confidence problem is sorely needed.