Into the fog of war
EDITORIAL
The San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, March 21, 2003
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THE UNPREDICTABILITY of war was reaffirmed with the first U.S. strikes on Iraq. For weeks, Pentagon insiders had been whispering about an opening missile barrage of such "shock and awe" that it would rattle the confidence of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Psychological warfare was very much a part of the opening strategy, but not in the way the experts had predicted. The first waves of missiles, quick and few, went right after Hussein just before daylight in Baghdad. White House officials attributed the surprise strike to a "target of opportunity" presented by intelligence agents who had determined Hussein's whereabouts.
As the U.S.-initiated assault intensified Thursday, so did the ambiguity about what the bombardment had accomplished. Analysts scrutinized the video of Hussein -- was it Saddam or a double, live or taped? -- and rumors crawled across the bottom of television screens as intermittent flares of bright light only hinted at the chaos and horror in Baghdad.
U.S. and British ground forces moved into Iraq, encountering relatively minor resistance. A few Iraqi missiles flew into Kuwait, seeming to be more flailed than aimed. Oil fields burned in southern Iraq. It appeared the war was moving fast, to the advantage of the United States and its allies. Or was it?
The fact is, the first days of a war are difficult to assess, especially when most journalists are frozen in place -- such as those deployed in Baghdad -- or are "embedded" with the troops of their own country. Was the lack of a coordinated response from Iraq evidence of a command structure in disarray or an eerie lull before a ruthless counterstrike? Were the administration's upbeat reports of the early strikes evidence of smart bombs or clever disinformation?
It was a day with more questions than answers from the widening battlefield.
Back on Capitol Hill, most opponents of the resolution that gave President Bush the authority to wage this war expressed their support for the military effort, as is customary and appropriate when troops move into harm's way. "Despite our differences on policy, when we go into battle, it will be one team, one fight," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said Thursday.
Pelosi's vision of "one team, one fight," however, did not apply to the streets of the city she represents. The protests against the war, once characterized by a peaceful and diverse mass of tens of thousands, have turned smaller and more disruptive. Packs of demonstrators spent the day disrupting traffic and taunting baton-wielding cops along Market Street.
It was hard to imagine that traffic jams, broken windows, graffiti-tagged bus stops or streams of profanities would change any minds, let alone stop the war. Reason took a holiday Thursday.
Anxiety prevailed as the world braced for the threatened "shock and awe" and confronted the uncertainty, frustration and carnage that are guaranteed in any war.
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