When watching the war on television….

Watching the war in Iraq has become compulsive viewing for many as commentators from the world’s main television channels crop up with the latest from Baghdad or decipher and demystify the miasma of battle analysis. Some viewers in Tanzania watch till the wee hours in curiosity of what will happen next.

This may sound ordinary but consider a question addressed by an eighteen-year-old to a panel of politicians. “The war in Iraq seems to have become a reality show on TV,” he said.  “CNN and BBC have brought the battlefield of Baghdad straight into the comfort of our living rooms. Do you consider this fascination with death, blood, destruction and misery morally degrading?”

It wasn’t just a clever question; it was far more than that.  Anybody asked this question would have to soul-search oneself as to whether or not he or she is taking a morbid delight in other people’s misery. Is it right for television to treat war and massacre as a spectacle?

It’s inevitable that the more you emphasise something the more you draw attention to it.  But does that mean television is making a spectacle of war?  Before one answers one needs to recall that the war is happening – and will continue – regardless of television. Also, war is a lot worse than what one sees or ‘feels’ through TV.

Yet if television has a role to play it is to inform beyond conveying facts. Live images capture a truth about battle that ordinary viewers can otherwise only guess at. Of course, it is not the whole truth and often it’s just a small fraction of it. What you see is what the camera shows or is permitted to film. That’s all.  There’s a lot that remains uncovered because it is unseen.  The big picture – or rather the full picture – is known only to the generals and usually they are reluctant to share it.

The point of concern is when one watches television taking delight at the calamity that has besieged many innocent civilians. The point of concern is when the battle is eyed from a religious perspective or as a war between the West and the Arabs. When wars are viewed like football matches simply because one supports one side, objectivity is often undermined and irrespective of many wrongs, viewers continue to support their side as fans support their soccer team even when the team resorts to foul play on the ground.

Viewers need to realize that the war has taken, and continues to take, many civilian casualties including new born babies. The war has brought looting to the streets of Iraq, it has led to many patients having to be treated without anaesthetic or to die without medicines and it has killed many soldiers on both sides who probably may have been compelled into battle. The war has caused serious starvation because of disruption of food supplies and TV images show people clinging to water bottles as if they have struck gold.  The list is endless and can only be effectively related by the many individuals or families who have not been exposed to television or the media at large.

The slaughter of innocents has been made to appear as a collateral damage for removing Saddam and nobody even knows how many civilians have been killed in this war. Nobody seems to care how many are injured, widowed, orphaned, or lost their homes and had lives destroyed. Double standards are exposed as the war proceeds. The families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie disaster were initially seeking as much as 20 billion dollars in compensation, but Libya settled at 2.7 billion dollars. The Italian families of victims of a United States marine jet some years ago received two million dollars per victim.  The families of victims of the United States attack on the Chinese Embassy in Serbia got $150,000 dollars each.  The Bosnian Muslims families of the 7000 men executed in cold blood by the Serbs, in the presence of UN peacekeepers were recently offered some $2 million dollars between them (although not all the families).  When the US bombed a wedding party in Afghanistan and killed around 40 civilians, their families were offered just $100 each in compensation.   In the current war on Iraq it appears many families will be happy to be compensated with simply food and water.

When watching television, one doesn’t need to be an intellectual to see the double standards that leaders maintain. One simply needs to jot down on paper what one hears in different speeches made by leaders and contradictions would vividly be there to read! The war is being fought with the slogan to “liberate Iraqis.” One may ask – did they ask to be liberated and will they really be? Unfortunately the removal of Saddam from power appears to be the only bright side in the darkness of the war in Iraq.