Namaste,

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As we enter the second week of the war against Iraq -- variously being perceived
as the war for oil, the war against Muslims, the war of American imperialism,
the war of liberation, the war against wmd, and the war for democracy -- I
figure it's a good time to talk about perception and reality. The following
probably won't be humorous, and may not even be particularly informative, but
since I believe what we're really fighting is a conflict of world views, I feel
compelled to add mine.




What is Real?
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Like you, I've been watching the war on TV from the comfortable vantage point
of my pillow fort. I've also been watching the picture-in-picture talking heads
and the press conferences.

To me, there's almost no synchrony between the
two. It's as if what I see and hear from the journalists and videographers is
completely different from what I am told at the press conferences. Sometimes I
wonder if they are even talking about the same events.

We have an amazing amount of access to what's *really* going on in the war:
there are embedded journalists all over the place. Each journalist has a small
piece of an increasingly complicated mosaic of events; one reporter will have
seen the exemplary Muslim student Hasan throw the grenade into his officer's
tent, while another will realize one of his comrades is missing in action.
Reporters have seen civilian casualties, friendly fire, unexpected Iraqi convoys
attacking US Marines and ferocious weather.

Brian Williams, the blow-dried Ermangildo Zegna-clad anchor of CNBC's evening
news went up on a routine aviation mission and ended up spending two days
trapped in a desert sandstorm, his Chinook helicopter and three others protected
by a platoon of Marines themselves trapped for 86 hours in the back of Bradleys.

Hampton Sides of the New Yorker opted not to become embedded after a Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical training session in Kuwait described to him in graphic
detail what happens when you inhale mustard gas and it eats your esophagus. He
traded in his gas mask an hour before he was supposed to accompany a military
unit. (www.newyorker.com) I'm proud of him, because he wussed out and wrote
about it.

Yet from all that we "see," what do we really know? Next to nothing. Clearly,
the Bush Administration has a point of view on why we went to war, how the war
is going, and what the outcome will be. The embedded journalists have another,
and the pundits still another. The families of the troops have one, too, and
because I am fortunate enough to have friends in India, Pakistan, London,
Switzerland and South Africa, I regularly receive both formal and informal
writings about the war from outside the United States propaganda bubble.

A certain number of "facts" are apparent, but they have to do with sandstorms,
troop movements, unforseen attacks by paramilitary Iraqi loyalists and
unexpected events. The war is clearly more difficult than it was made out to be
beforehand, and we are seen by many Iraqis as imperialist invaders rather than
as humanitarian liberators. The mideast editor of Newsweek pointed this out last
night on the NBC news.

Has the Defense Department made a big mistake letting Americans in on how little
they actually know about Iraq, how shamefully inadequate the intelligence has
been about Saddam Hussein�s grip on the country?

Perhaps someone in the military is thinking that. Twenty-five years of PR
experience have taught me to try to prevent the unexpected, to coach my clients,
and to ask no questions without known answers.

Yet for Americans, this full-on access to even the most horrendous information
is a gift, and it has already been given to us, never to be returned; it allows
us to form our own opinions, despite what we are being "fed" by "authoritative
sources who speak on condition of anonymity."

In the end, this access to information and the ability to make up our own
minds and act on our opinions is the true joy of being an American. If there is
any reason for this war, that's it: we're preserving our right to our own
opinion.



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