Thursday, December 01, 2005

 

View from the Red Road

Airport Road

After 60 Minutes aired a story about the dangerous Baghdad airport road in early November 2005, CBS heard from "Major General Rick Lynch," Deputy Chief of Staff of the Multinational Force in Iraq.

The following is the major general's letter (dated Nov. 9th) to 60 Minutes producer Josh Yager, and below, Yager's response.

Dear Mr. Yager,
Your November 6th segment, “A Dangerous Stretch of Road in Iraq,” covering the airport road in Baghdad, portrayed our Soldiers in a fair and accurate light for which we thank you. However, your segment overlooked several salient points and left the wrong impression about progress with the security situation in this area. While the premise that this was once a “dangerous stretch of road” is certainly true, the reality is now different. This stretch of road is now one of the safest in Iraq.

The progress made over the past several months is remarkable. Last April there were 37 casualties along the route (killed or wounded), followed by May with 19; June with 19; July with 18; August had 7, September had 3, and in October, there were zero deaths and just one person wounded. This clearly represents a sustained reduction in violence along the airport road.

I request that you provide this letter and the relevant updated information on your next Sunday night segment, to ensure the most accurate and balanced reporting for which CBS - 60 Minutes takes great pride.

Sincerely,
Major General, Rick Lynch
Response from producer Josh Yager.

Dear Maj. Gen. Lynch:

Thank you for your letter. We were not comfortable reporting statistics for several important reasons, chief among them, that numbers provided to us by the U.S. military contained inconsistencies. As it happens, even the numbers in your letter are inconsistent with figures furnished to us by the 3rd Infantry Division as recently as Oct. 18, 2005. And those Oct. 18 numbers did not reflect the deaths of at least four Iraqi security forces killed on the mission during our visit.

Our ability to quantify progress in the mission was also hindered by the fact that Army statistics are limited in scope; excluding incidents on access roads, and entrance and exit ramps along the airport road. The numbers also exclude civilian casualties altogether. While we were in Iraq, there was at least one incident, involving U.S. forces on the road, that resulted in unintended injuries to civilians, but which was not reflected in the military statistics we received.

The numbers we obtained from the army do show that as late as September of this year, two bombs detonated on the airport road. And a published report based on military figures cites nine improvised explosive devices along Route Irish in the last two months. So we believe that we left viewers with an accurate impression of conditions on the road.

We think it would have been unfair to let statistics define our report on the success or failure of your efforts. We hope that you appreciate our effort to present an accurate picture of what goes into securing the airport road and to tell the stories of the brave men who do so. We believe our story did justice to your men and your mission and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Best Wishes,

Josh Yager
Producer

On November 29th, 2005, following a statement to television media by secretary of state Donald Rumsfeld that the airport road is under "total control" by newly implanted Iraqi government's military personnel, a CNN newswoman on assignment near the same road reported immediately afterward that the airport road has only one symbolic checkpoint manned by a lone Iraqi military unit - totally surrounded by u.s. military troops, tanks, humvies, and constantly patrolling helicopter gunships.

According to U.S. Representative, John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, it is time for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

"It is time for a change in direction," said Rep. Murtha, "Our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region."

Many Americans feel that the "undeclared 'War For Oil'" and subsequent huge profit deposits into Exxon Mobile and other huge oil company executive's bank accounts is not worth further sacrifice and deaths of young Americans and that cheaply purchased (or thefted) oil from propped-up puppet government dictators in Iraq (mirroring those in Saudi Arabia) or in the future quests by big oil into Iran, Venezuela, and Syria is not worth it and getting increasingly harder to swallow.

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