Passing on an embed in Iraq

Michael Fumento has decided not to take this particular offere to embed with the troops in Iraq.

I asked for two embeds in the Baghdad area or one in Baghdad and one in Diyala, a hotspot on the Iranian border. These would allow the reporting I specialize in, which isn't "war" generally but combat. I like to report on the men doing the fighting (see this and this, for example). The vast majority of American reporters in Iraq play it safe in Baghdad hotels, and even embeds often go no further than a major camp that's as safe as the International Zone. But there is also a dedicated corps of citizen combat reporters in Iraq. I told Combined Press Information Corps (CPIC), which embeds reporters, that I preferred to be with the 82nd Airborne--which had only recently arrived and which is my old sister unit--but didn't insist on it. If I'm where the action is, I'm happy.

I was first offered an embed in Tikrit and said no. Saddam's birthplace sees about as much combat as Malibu these days, for the best of all reasons--it has been pacified. A car bomb here and there perhaps, but that's not combat, even if reporting on car bombs is all the mainstream media wants to do. Let them. If I'm going to be somewhere as peaceful as Malibu, I'd rather be in Malibu. It has a beautiful beach, you can buy beer, and you're not paying a fortune each day for war insurance.

I don't belong to the mainstream media, and I assume that was the root problem. It's okay for the AP to come in and claim four mosques were burned down that weren't (the Washington Post said it was five, the New York Times said two), or that six Sunnis were horribly burned alive who weren't, or for the Los Angeles Times to report that an airstrike that never occurred killed dozens of women and children. But when a citizen embed (albeit one attached to a magazine) wants in, he gets shuffled off to the lemon stand.

In a guerrilla war, perception is more important than reality. For example, the Tet Offensive saw the Viet Cong crushed, but the media converted it into an incredible communist victory. When CPIC caters to reporters who put headlines before facts, who want to portray the war as hopeless, and who show the military in as bad a light as possible and then proceeds to shunt aside reporters with a track record for veracity and supporting the troops, it shows utter ignorance of this truism. Somehow I don't think this was part of Gen. Petraeus's plan.