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-- Peter Arnett: U.S. War Plan 'Fails'
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Peter Arnett: U.S. War Plan 'Fails'
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| NEW YORK (March 31) - NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV in which he said the American-led coalition's initial plan for the war had failed because of Iraq's resistance. Arnett called the interview a ''misjudgment'' and apologized. Arnett, on NBC's ''Today'' show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added ''I said over the weekend what we all know about the war.'' ''I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment,'' the New Zealand-born Arnett said. He said he would try to leave Baghdad now, joking ''there's a small island in the South Pacific that I've inhabited that I'll try to swim to.'' NBC defended him Sunday, saying he had given the interview as a professional courtesy and that his remarks were analytical in nature. But by Monday morning the network switched course and, after Arnett spoke with NBC News President Neal Shapiro, said it would no longer work with Arnett. ''It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war,'' NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said. ''And it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview.'' Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, gained much of his prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN. One of the few American television reporters left in Baghdad, his reports were frequently aired on NBC and its cable sisters, MSNBC and CNBC. Leaving a second network under a cloud may mark the end of his TV career. Arnett was the on-air reporter of the 1998 CNN report that accused American forces of using sarin nerve gas on a Laotian village in 1970 to kill U.S. defectors. Two CNN employees were sacked and Arnett was reprimanded over the report, which the station later retracted. Arnett left the network when his contract was not renewed. In the Iraqi TV interview, broadcast Sunday by Iraq's satellite television station and monitored by The Associated Press in Egypt, Arnett said his Iraqi friends tell him there is a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain are doing. He said the United States is reappraising the battlefield and delaying the war, maybe for a week, ''and rewriting the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan.'' ''Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces,'' Arnett said. Arnett said it is clear that within the United States there is growing opposition to the war and a growing challenge to President Bush about the war's conduct. ''Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States,'' he said. ''It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments.'' At a briefing Sunday in Qatar, Gen. Tommy Franks ticked off major achievements of the war campaign, including the advance of troops to within 60 miles of Baghdad. But he found himself answering questions about whether he had enough troops to do the job and denying that coalition forces were stalled. A Republican congresswoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, told Fox News Channel on Sunday that Arnett's remarks were ''Kafkaesque'' and ''just crazy.'' ''Let's hope that he's being coerced,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. The first Bush administration was unhappy with Arnett's reporting on the Gulf War in 1991 for CNN, suggesting he had become a conveyor of propaganda. Arnett was denounced for reporting that the allies had bombed a baby milk factory in Baghdad when the military said it was a biological weapons plant. Arnett went to Iraq this year not as an NBC News reporter but as an employee of the MSNBC show ''National Geographic Explorer.'' When other NBC reporters left Baghdad for safety reasons, the network began airing his reports. NBC said Monday he wouldn't be reporting for ''National Geographic Explorer,'' either. The Iraqi TV interview was broadcast in English and translated by a uniformed Iraqi anchor. NBC said Arnett gave the interview when asked shortly after he attended an Iraqi government briefing. In the April 5 issue of TV Guide, Arnett said he felt he had found redemption reporting on the current war. ''I was furious with (CNN founder) Ted Turner and (then-CNN chairman) Tom Johnson when they threw me to the wolves after I made them billions risking my life to cover the first Gulf War,'' Arnett told TV Guide. ''Now (Turner and Johnson) are gone, the Iraqis have thrown the CNN crew out of Baghdad, and I'm still here,'' he said. ''Any satisfaction in that? Ha, ha, ha, ha.'' He said the Iraqis allowed him to stay in Baghdad because they respect him and ''see me as a fellow warrior.'' AP-NY-03-31-03 0910EST |
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Geraldo disembedded for loose lips
Low in a CNN story, but more to come I'm sure: "The U.S. military ordered Fox News Correspondent Geraldo Rivera out of Iraq after it said he violated reporting rules by divulging details of future military operations during a live broadcast, a Pentagon official said." Maybe he and Arnett should swap stories over a brandy.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast...main/index.html
Poor geraldo 
.
reporters know the fine line and peter arnett crossed it and he knows it.
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| Originally posted by Vesa I wonder what Arnett says today when the American troops have just made a break-through against the Republican Guards, and are ready to enter Baghdad  My prediction: it's gonna either end-up in a stalemate on the outskirts of Baghdad, or Saddam's immediate collapse. It will depend on how well Saddam's defense line holds, which would allow him an opportunity to regroup defenses inside Baghdad, so that the Americans can't quickly overrun the entire city. |
-Vesa, I know the republican guard were hit hard today and stuff, I heaven't watched all the news, as far as I know, they aren't THROUGH the republican guard just yet, they were just attacking them, but no breakthrough as far as I know.. correct me if I'm wrong.
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| Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Even Um Quasar isn't completely secured yet. They have a ship with food and supplies on the docks and they can't even unload the cargo. |
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| Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Don't be so sure. Even Um Quasar isn't completely secured yet. They have a ship with food and supplies on the docks and they can't even unload the cargo. |
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| Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Don't be so sure. Even Um Quasar isn't completely secured yet. They have a ship with food and supplies on the docks and they can't even unload the cargo. |
I think he was talking about the incident yesterday where 2 ships full of food and water couldn't enter port because they still found some fresh mines... in that matter, umm qasr isn't secure.
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| Originally posted by torontotrance reporters know the fine line and peter arnett crossed it and he knows it. |
wtf man... where do you see treason??
so what you say, that everyone who see things differently from the pentagone should be convicted of treason and killed. Wow this sounds like millions will die of this 
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| Originally posted by JM yep agreed. if he were american it'd be treason treason get the life sentence. better yet, execution. too bad he's Canadian, or so i hear. >JM< |
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| Originally posted by ahlamalek wtf man... where do you see treason?? so what you say, that everyone who see things differently from the pentagone should be convicted of treason and killed. Wow this sounds like millions will die of this |
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| Originally posted by LiquidX Dont make up lol, he is from Ireland. |
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| Originally posted by Vesa Well, the American troops are currently doing quite well if measured in the amount of territory gained, so in that sense the plan hasn't failed. On the contrary, the Americans might soon get into excellent positions around Baghdad, so they can be satisfied with the advance. And Rumsfeld can be happy that his small amount of land forces have only made a minor difference to the speed of the advance. But it still seems that the Americans' plan has failed in a couple of other respects. I found a few articles related to this question. The following article tells that the Americans had counted too heavily on mass defections and pro-American attitude among some regular Iraqi troops: U.S. officials concede they 'misjudged' Iraqi defections http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/...31/5014928s.htm The Debka site also says that Shiites in Southern Iraq have been advised by their exiled spiritual leader to sit on the sidelines, and collect the spoils from the winner. So the popular uprisings which were central to PNAC's military plan have not happened, and very possibly will not happen before Saddam and his inner circle have been eliminated. The following article even suggests that some Iraqi tribal leaders hate the US so much that they will fight to death rather than have Americans occupy the country. This is against the PNAC Plan which assumed that most Iraqi tribes would welcome the American troops. Tribal chiefs vow to fight to the death for Saddam http://www.guardian.co.uk/internati...,926149,00.html The Shock & Awe campaign didn't really shock the Iraqi top officers into submission, so the Americans will now have to resort to street battles to take Baghdad. This will bring heavy casualties. US Said Prepared to Pay 'High Price' to Oust Saddam http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm..._usa_price_dc_2 Some articles claimed that before the war, the Americans had ordered 70,000 body bags intended for Coalition soldiers. I don't know if this was just a contingency plan in case of nukes, biological and chemical attacks, or if it was a normal worst-case scenario. So it's possible that the current favourable situation might change in the later stages of the invasion, and bring out the weaknesses of the US military plan. For example, the Iraqis are not going tolarate an American occupation, so the American military plan would also need an exit strategy to avoid the looming Iraqi guerilla warfare. Whether it's a good or bad plan, Rumsfeld seems to have pissed off some high-ranking American military: http://www.guardian.co.uk/internati...,926158,00.html But all this will depend on the unpredictable Gods Of War. It's useful to remember that Saddam's army is also in problems, so it might collapse easily if confronted at the right moment. |
-Americans troops weren't ready nor prepare to the gerrilla warfare of the Iraquis, many are confused and alarmed now ( car bombing ).
Yes ... I cringe in anticipation of what's going to happen in Baghdad. If Saddam offers to end the conflict in exchange for exile before that happens I think the US should take it ... a sign that we are trying to liberate Iraq you know? I doubt that will happen though.
well Peter just landed a job at the Daily Mirror in London
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| Originally posted by LiquidX Dont make up lol, he is from Ireland. |
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| Originally posted by Yoepus I'll settle it, the guys a New Zeland born US citizen. And it could be treason in the sense that he "aided and comforted the enemy". Thought I doubt anyone will try him for treason, nor do I think he should be tried for it. He was entitled to his free speech, and we were entitled to say "STFU someone should fire you", and well thathappened |
he failed to do his job, aside from treason or whatever, a journalist/reporter is not meant to air his personal opinion. he's there to report factual information.
and im just fucking loving how people say the US plan is failing/has failed, how the fuck do you even know their plan in the first place.
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| Originally posted by DaveSaenz You guys are cracking me up...... He's originally from New Zealand, and became a US citizen. |
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| Originally posted by sifntj0r he failed to do his job, aside from treason or whatever, a journalist/reporter is not meant to air his personal opinion. he's there to report factual information. and im just fucking loving how people say the US plan is failing/has failed, how the fuck do you even know their plan in the first place. |
http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/0....bunning02.html
gotta love the conservative minority(idiocy)|
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