The First Casualty

"In time of war, the first casualty is truth." --Boake Carter

IN THE FIRST WAR free of formal military censorship, television footage of napalm and bombings in Vietnam were beamed into millions of American living rooms. Some say they were responsible for turning public opinion against the war.

The leaders of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, most of whom cut their teeth on the Vietnam war, are determined to see that the press is kept out of the war this time. Of course, there are legitimate reasons to restrict some aspects of press coverage in a war zone: troop movements, targets and other sensitive information could endanger the lives of American soldiers if they were divulged indiscriminately. But no one has accused the press of exposing sensitive intelligence in Vietnam. The generals simply want to control public opinion about the war.

To that end, the Pentagon has imposed the strictest set of press regulations in modern American history. Under these restrictions, reporters may not report on battles outside of authorized press pools, they may not photograph or interview wounded soldiers without the permission and presence of the commanding officer, they must submit copy to military censors, and they may not report on "details of major battle damage or major personnel loss" until the Pentagon officially announces them. The American people will find out only what the Pentagon wants them to know only when the Pentagon wants them to know it.

SOME OF THE RESTRICTIONS make no pretense of protecting national security. For instance:

*"The visual and audio recordings of personnel in agony or severe shock are not authorized."

"Imagery of patients suffering from severe disfigurement or undergoing plastic surgery treatments is not authorized."

Clearly, the Pentagon is intent on making the public think that this is a sanitary war in which all bombs go down the air shafts of their targets and no one gets their faces or limbs blown off. But without a more accurate depiction of the war, the American public cannot make informed choices. If our government wants us to go to war, the least we can expect from it in return is to see the reality of the war and not the government-sanitized version.

The reality of war isn't pretty: it includes maiming, decapitation--sons and daughters burned, shot and bayonetted. But if the government insists on hiding this reality from the public, there is nothing to stop us from continuing wars that have already turned sour, or from going to war unnecessarily in the future.