The air war in Iraq has been frequently ignored in the corporate media, as it gets little attention amid the daily reporting on car bombs and roadside bombs. One reason may be that the air war has been conducted away from the eyes of corporate media reporters, prompting one television journalist to offer the following explanation to journalist Tom Engelhardt:
My own experience of Iraq is that while we're all constantly aware of the air power, we're rarely nearby when it's deployed offensively. Perhaps that explains why we don't see it. One does ‘hear' the airpower all the time though. Fighters and helicopters used to protect convoys; helis shipping people back and forth to bases, or hunting in packs across towns; AWACS high up. I've even watched drones making patterns in the sky. So why don't we film it? (source)
Nevertheless, the air war can and should not be ignored. There was little reporting on the air war in 2004 despite the fact that the United States engaged in aerial bombing offensives in a number of urban areas including Sadar City in Baghdad, Samarra, Kut, Najaf, and Fallujah. The air campaign continued in 2005 and as was the case in 2004, there were no stories about the air war in the major print media outlets despite the fact that the air war continues to kill Iraqi civilians. As recently as this week the military has downplayed reports of civilian casualties from aerial bombardments, with the Marines dismissing Iraqi reports of significant bombing casualties in the Anbar province by saying that they take “pains” to avoid civilian casualties and claiming that “the vast majority of civilians are killed by the insurgency.”
The future of the Iraq War will likely involve an increase in the use of air power. According to Seymour Hersh, who wrote an article earlier this month on where the Iraq War is going, an increase in the air war will likely mean an increase in civilian casualties. Moreover, the Pentagon’s plans for reducing troops in Iraq (and most being seriously discussed in Congress and the mainstream) involve using air power to enforce United States policy. Such a strategy has gained support from Richard Nixon’s former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who has argued that his policy of “Vietnamization” (reducing ground troops while increasing air power during the Vietnam War) was a success and that a similar policy of “Iraqization” would allow the United States to reduce its number of troops in the country.
