European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                On the air . A when the camera stares leaders and Public heed this iraqi boy saying he was injured during a bombing raid made it on jordanian television last  Walter Goodman the new York times television As Karl von Clausewitz neglected to mention is War and politics by other Means. But what Means exactly its use in the persian Gulf War and the politicking before and since reveal the sort of weapon it is. While it was storming the desert the Pentagon kept news cameras at Bay and transmitted its own High up High tech photographs of pinpoint strikes. On the iraqi Side the looting of Kuwait was closed Cven to Peter Arnett but cameras were invited to record the iraqi ruler patting children a Heads and Western correspondents were encouraged to take pictures of what was apparently a bombed air raid shelter in Baghdad. Quot we never quite got ahead of the Story about the bomb shelter Quot concedes Richard n. Haass a special assistant president Bush with the War Over Washington became friendlier to television news welcoming coverage of homecomings and Victory parades. The Pentagon and the president even cooperated in a hurray for our Side docudrama. Critics of the War meanwhile have been bringing Back pictures of the sufferings of iraqi civilians. It All depends on which Way you Point the Lens and whether you take off the Cap. A few weeks ago Haass who is attached to the National Security Council and participated in planning the War gave a talk about the Impact of television to journalists and officials brought together in Washington by the Annenberg Washington program and the Johns Hopkins foreign policy Institute. He said there was no Impact worthy of the word until the actual attack on Iraq in january. Even before that he said television served the administration As a your chief tools in developing Domestic and International support that is Quot Selling our  the administration he added wanted a to get out there with something that is very Black and White in terms of where you stand that can be explained very quickly Quot a can debate he observed docs not invite nuance. In an aside that must please newspaper and Magazine hands he said columnists had More influence than television on making policy As distinguished from Selling it. Once the War was on he allowed that the Way it might come across on the tube did enter into the extraordinary care taken by the military to avoid a collateral  a a decision was made that it was just not Worth the political fallout that would obviously accrue if innocents were Hurt a he said. Particularly if they were Hurt on screen. For similar reasons television constrained Washington from continuing the ground War and moving toward Baghdad. The administration he said was especially concerned about How the sight of americans piling on Iraq would play in Arab countries. Although Haass emphasized that television did not change Quot the moral calculation Quot against More fighting he granted that it sharpened that calculation. So at least a Little credit or blame must go to television for the abrupt end to hostilities that left president Saddam Hussein of Iraq in Power and his forces largely intact. The sorts of pictures that worried Pentagon planners could be seen recently in a frontline documentary titled the War we left behind. It focused on civilians particularly children going without milk and Medicine As a result of those smart bomb strikes on Power stations and the continuing United nations sanctions. Since the program was made by Leslie and Andrew Cockburn viewers cannot have been astonished by the underlying animus against the administration. But aside from the political slant their documentary demonstrates that if you turn the camera in the direction of the victims you can make any notion of a just War seem like camouflage for barbarity. The War we left behind did not dispute the Pentagon a claim that its bombs were aimed at strategic targets. Even the cock bums did not charge the air Force with knowing there were civilians in the Amariyah shelter in Baghdad which military intelligence still insists was a command Post. The main Point of the program was that the intentional hits on Power stations had disastrous effects on food production and water purification which compounded by the sanctions continue to cause the death of infants from malnutrition and diseases like typhoid. Accompanying the pictures of sick children was an iraqi doctor who said a i know of no iraqi baby who invaded Kuwait so How could the iraqi babies be punished a no nuances. Babies were on camera again in a Section of the documentary devoted to the suffering of the kurd in Northern Iraq whose attempted uprising was crushed by Baghdad. Here too the United states was blamed for aiding the rebels and building up their Hopes and for not aiding them and assuring defeat. The ease was driven Home by More pictures of people in misery. Paul d. Woytowitz. An undersecretary of defense told the Washington meeting that watching the debate in Congress on the War against Iraq must have strengthened Samdani Hussein a Quot conviction that we  do anything and if we Ever did anything we  do in  that comes close to the argument common during wartime and now accentuated by in no a worldwide reach that Domestic debate hearkens the enemy. But suppose the wars critics had prevailed the sanctions Many senators supported As an alternative to Force would have meant Little if they had not caused suffering to civilians and sickly iraqi babies would assuredly have been seen on television As the months wore on. How Long would americans have continued to Back sanctions with those ailing innocents on the nightly news and Public broadcasting documentaries the plight of kurdish refugees when brought Home by television moved the nation sufficiently to compel Washington to Send Aid and then to set up a Security zone. But suppose As some urged that the United states had gone further and unleashed troops against the iraqi attackers resulting in More casualties among civilians somebody a camera would assuredly have been there on the ground in the hospitals and pity for the kurd would have turned to revulsion against the cruelties committed in saving them. The Only Good War As the Pentagon controllers understood is one where the cameras Are Miles away from the targets is any cause Worth certain death and Destine Tion when they can be seen in the living mom so Here is the aus wit Ian doctrine Tor the Ido age when focused on Distant pinpoint hits military briefings parades and enemy aggression the camera can rally a spirit of combat lint when it turns toward the Down and duly consequences of War it becomes i he super weapon of Pacil Stu. Ami like other weapons n can be Pul to the sconce of defenders or aggressors democrats or  10 1091 gunday a Page 15