From the Washington Post:
Journalist Peter Arnett, covering the war from Baghdad, told state-run Iraqi TV in an interview aired Sunday that the American-led coalition’s first war plan had failed because of Iraq’s resistance and said strategists are “trying to write another war plan.” Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, garnered much of his prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN. He is reporting from the Iraqi capital now for NBC and its cable stations.
From a CNN transcript of Peter Arnett speaking Iraqi state television:
In answer to your question, it is clear that within the United States there is growing challenge to President Bush about the conduct of the war and also opposition to the war. So our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments….
I’ve been mainly in Baghdad in the past few weeks. But, clearly this is a city that is disciplined, the population is responsive to the government’s requirements of discipline and my Iraqi friends tell me there is a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain are doing….
The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance now they are trying to write another war plan. [CNN, 3/31/03]
My outrage was tempered by this later story from Fox News:
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.
To express such a stupid opinion is unprofessional. To express it in an interview with the propaganda tool for our enemy is treasonous.|
Update: Oh, and he got hired by the UK Mirror already. Fox Reports that the UK Mirror is “vehemently opposed to the war.” Punch a wall, slam the desk, throw a glass. Just don’t kick the dog. I like dogs.
From Cox and Forkum:
