Posted on 11/17/2004 4:23:15 PM PST by dalereed
Slandering Private Ryan – in Fallujah
By David D. Perlmutter November 17, 2004
It's an irony that the week that some American television stations pulled "Saving Private Ryan" because of harsh language, many others aired parts of a video that purports to show an American Marine shooting a wounded and unarmed civilian in Fallujah.
The link between Steven Spielberg's fictional (but realistic) film about World War II and a real event in the Iraq war is a reminder that, with so few of us having combat experience or studying warfare in school, the historical context of modern combat needs to be explained better.
Television networks were responsible in that most of them edited the Fallujah images when, apparently, a Marine thought an Iraqi man was faking death and shot him in the head. But the incident also requires a detailed discussion (and visualization) of its historical context. The truth is that this is how you fight a war against an amoral terrorist enemy. Further, what that Marine did was commonplace in the history of America at war: if you condemn him, then you also attack the "greatest generation" veterans of World War II.
Take a famous scene from "Saving Private Ryan." At Normandy Beach, American soldiers, after terrible losses, finally knock out one enemy bunker with a flamethrower and Germans tumble out on fire, screaming in agony. "Let 'em burn," responds one GI without remorse. Witnessed from the comfort of our living room, it is a shocking statement and scene. But in the context of the film and of war it is understandable.
I show this clip regularly to my students and invite reactions. One young woman said, "I can imagine being so angry, so vengeful at the enemy that just killed your buddies that you don't care what happens to them." I would only add one factor to her analysis: uncertainty. In a study I conducted on police work, the most fearful thing about a cop's job, I felt, was that you never knew who would pull out a gun and who wouldn't. In a war against terrorists everybody is a potential combatant and every doorway a potential deathtrap.
American warriors of the past knew this. Michael Lee Lanning wrote in his account of "Vietnam, 1969: A Company Commander's Journal" that Viet Cong or North Vietnamese army fighters regularly feigned surrender, incapacitation or death in order to lure GIs into grenade or rifle range. Even the actual dead were booby-trapped. The average GI learned quickly to "shoot and throw grenades at the body" rather than risk enemy treachery. No surprise that war historian and analyst James F. Dunnigan estimated that, "Historically 50 percent of those surrendering [in war] do not survive the process."
In Iraq, American servicemen and women face insurgents who hide, store weapons and fight from hospitals, homes and religious places and from among civilians, booby-trap their own dead as well as those of our soldiers, disguise themselves as women and noncombatants, and, yes, fake surrender as a prelude to murder-suicide. Early in the war, British soldiers even reported insurgents picking up small children to use as human shields during a fire fight.
So what was that young Marine in Fallujah to do: wait until faking Iraqis blew him, his buddies and the camera crew up? He played it safe: he's alive, and so are the embedded journalists.
In fact, we can estimate that a sizable number of U.S. casualties in Iraq were because of the basic decency of the America soldier, sailor, Marine and flier.
That is the story that needs more reporting.
Prison scandals aside, the record of the American combatant for humanity even in the most chaotic circumstances is unequaled. In World War II, Japanese and German troops were often astonished at how well they were treated. Axis POWS in the United States, for example, were fed better food than found on the average (rationed) American civilian dinner plate. One German POW, asked about his experiences, commented that the smartest thing to do in war against America is to "get captured – you'll have it made." An exaggeration? Yes, but also the most important message for the world about our latter-day Private Ryans in Fallujah and elsewhere. If you want to fight America and die, then your wish will be fulfilled. If you want to live, surrender to American mercy.
For ourselves, we now have two generations of Americans whose only experiences of battle have been watching the news and movies and playing "Halo." Years ago I did a study of the pictorial depiction of warfare in high school history textbooks. Among my findings: actual grim combat received almost no attention. It was censored as being too disturbing for young minds. We need to upturn that illogic by teaching all Americans what combat entails: the good, the bad and the necessary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perlmutter is an associate professor of mass communication at Louisiana State University and a senior fellow at the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs. He is author of "Visions of War" and "Photojournalism and Foreign Policy." He can be reached via e-mail at dperlmu@lsu.edu.
Bump
"For ourselves, we now have two generations of Americans whose only experiences of battle have been watching the news and movies and playing "Halo." Years ago I did a study of the pictorial depiction of warfare in high school history textbooks. Among my findings: actual grim combat received almost no attention. It was censored as being too disturbing for young minds. We need to upturn that illogic by teaching all Americans what combat entails: the good, the bad and the necessary."
Truer words were never spoken!
Excellent article. Pretty much nails it. Sad commentary that TV and Movies are reality for many people.
And those who desperately want democracy in Iraq and are lining up to register to vote right now even as we sit in front of our screens, agree with and support the coalition's actions in Falluja.
I was a child in Bavaria when the Americans liberated us; and I use the word 'liberated' deliberately. We were, all of us, in that small village, delighted to see them and might I add we ate American food with great relish after several years of near starvation. No leftist propaganda will dim my memories of the American armed forces. Each one was a hero.
Well said!
"Saving Privat Ryan" was an amazing movie. I'm sorry it was taken off the air.
"Saving Privat Ryan" was an amazing movie. I'm sorry it was taken off the air.
That's good to hear in times like these. Thanks for sharing your story.
I could tell you some stories! It's a crying shame the left in Germany (but not in Bavaria) has also been able to distort history. Why not Bavaria? Because their religion is still alive.
The American troops stationed nearby the small village where I lived gave their time (and lots of US money) to build a sports ground and soccer field. It's still there.
Meanwhile, in the cities of the north signs appeared on buildings and fences - yankee go home -
Must have been written by 'intellectuals'?
People forget that Hitler was a Socialist.
"If you want to fight America and die, then your wish will be fulfilled. If you want to live, surrender to American mercy."
Outstanding article.
BUMP
I wanted to post it this morning but I had to go to work before the UT put it up on their web site.
A real breath of fresh air being from a professor!
No one has any doubts about it. The Human Rights people should be assigned to Iraq as "umpires".
Bump!
BTTT!
Roger that.
Show those blood spattered rooms where the beheadings took place, show the video of the woman aid worker, show the mass graves.
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