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Journalism of Courage
There is a touch of irony in the tragedy of the attack on Rashid Hotel in Baghdad where Paul Wolfowitz, the US under secretary of defence and a leading architect of the war through 8220;shock and awe8221; was lodged, symbolising the new war now in full swing. In the worst carnage since the Iraq war ended, the string of bombings across Baghdad within the span of three-quarters of an hour, including at the International Committee for Red Cross headquarters and other well-guarded places that left over 35 dead and dozens more wounded, symbolised the nature of the evolving war. The Iraq war was supposed to have been over six months ago after the resounding military victory of Anglo-American arms. Not only is the peace and freedom that the war had promised not been established, but a new war has taken root.
The US is in a growing quandary over even how to describe the attacks on its soldiers and Iraqis. Top US leaders are already using terminologies like 8220;insurgents8221; to describe those who are incessantly attacking the US forces and their supporters, besides Iraqi policemen. Its civilian and military leaders in Baghdad seem to hold different views on whether these attackers are local terrorists, Ba8217;athist, or foreign fighters in pursuit of their own jihad. The only thing clear to emerge from the missile attack from crude launchers on the Red Cross headquarters, and the shooting down of the helicopter by a grenade launcher, is that the technique used was not very different from that employed by Mujahideen created by CIA and directed by Pakistan8217;s ISI in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
