Examining the Lack of Media Coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

~Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

To mark the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War (March 19, 2003), Iraq War veterans gathered at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland, to testify about their experiences. This hearing was called Winter Soldiers: Iraq and Afghanistan. For four days, March 13 to March 16, veterans from across the United States gathered to share their experiences. Sponsored by the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), soldiers gave eyewitness accounts of the atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The event was modeled after the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation held in Detroit from January 31 to February 2. According to Dr. Ernest Bolt, professor emeritus at the University of Richmond, during these three days more than 100 honorably discharged veterans and 16 civilians described their war experiences, "including rapes, torture, brutalities, and killing of non-combatants." Like this year's event, the Winter Soldiers of 1971 received very little media coverage. It did however lead to Senate committee hearings in April of 1971, these hearings most famous now for future presidential candidate John Kerry's testimony.

Winter Soldiers: Iraq and Afghanistan was open to members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Gold Star Families Speak Out. The general public was not invited to the event itself because of limited space, according to IVAW. However, the IVAW Web site offered video and audio feeds, and also offered a list of local cable stations broadcasting Winter Soldier. In the entire United States, only 19 stations in 11 states televised the hearings. Most of the stations were labeled as "community" or "public access" channels.

From a Democracy Now! interview on March 14, according to Camilo Mejia, former staff sergeant of Army guard in Florida and current chair of the board of IVAW,attending the event were:

over 250 registered Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, and we also have members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace and other military family groups, such as Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families for Peace. And we're also going to have people testifying from the civilian perspective from both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such a gathering should have surely attracted media big and small. It didn't. A search of CNN.com produces no stories. The first stories that pop up on a FoxNews.com search are stories on Marvel's Captain America and a blog entry from 2007 defending military action; no Winter Soldier's coverage is given by Fox News either. MSNBC offers a news link regarding the story, but once clicked takes the reader to a statement saying the article is no longer available, and directs the reader to a Washington Post Web site. Clicking on this link takes you to the Washington Post's main page (not to the article). Searching for the article on the WashingtonPost.com offers an article, but you must register to read it. ABCNews.com offers Captain America articles as well, and a few regarding John Kerry and the 1971 Winter Soldiers gathering. Nothing on this month's event. CBSNews.com returned no results. The New York Times? Nothing. The Independent Weekly in South Carolina ran a story, but it's more about a local war protester than it is about the Winter Soldiers event. Yahoo News via The Nation did offer a story on the day before the event, and the Baltimore Sun allowed an opinion piece to run on the event on March 19. I cannot say whether these stories received top billing; I found them by searching for them specifically. Outlets giving a strong voice to the gathering are such sources as Democracy Now!, think tank Foreign Policy in Focus, AlterNet, AntiWar.com, and non-U.S. sources such as the UK's Guardian Limited.

Not everyone listens to Democracy Now! It's not a mainstream news source. Not everyone has access to the Internet, the main source of information on Winter Soldiers, and even those who do have Internet access must search specifically for the event. Perhaps some Baltimore residents read the opinion piece in their local paper, and some South Carolinians became interested after the story about a local war protester.

Every American has the right to know what is actually happening in this war. Every American should know what atrocities are occurring in our country's name. The line between "good guys" and "bad guys" is far more blurry and gray than our current government, and our mainstream media, would have you believe. Situations such as the Abu Graib torture scandal, the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl by three American Soldiers, and the Blackwater shootings are painted as the exception, not the rule, but to hear the soldiers speak at Winter Soldiers, such attitudes are the rule, and these soldiers brave enough to speak out against this behavior, and the media outlets willing to cover their speeches, are the exceptions.

To watch the horrifying testimonies of the Winter Soldiers, visit the Iraq Veterans Against the War "Winter Soldier Testimony" Web site at http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony/video. Again, these are NOT testimonies on how bad the "bad guys" are; these are testimonies about U.S. military behavior. Like I said, they're horrifying.

Dr. Ernest Bolt. "Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Winter Soldier Investigation (1971)." University of Richmond.

Democracy Now! "Half a Decade of War: Five Years After Iraq Invasion Soldiers Testify at Winter Soldier Hearings."

Iraq Veterans Against the War. "Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan."

Jomana Karadsheh. "Survivors of Blackwater Shooting in Iraq Tell FBI Their Stories." CNN.com.

Thomas Paine. "The Crisis."