Christiane Amanpour: 'Iraq War Has Been A Disaster'

From the Drudge Report. Speaking in the true way of an objective journalist, CNN Middle East correspondent Christiane Amanpour has decided that the war in Iraq is "not acceptable."

"The Iraq war has been a disaster, and journalists have paid for it," Amanpour explains to Larry King, a day after ABC NEWS anchor Bob Woodruff was hit injured by a bomb.

War is an ugly thing. Journalists that aspire to bring the news to the public are taking a gamble when they venture into war zones. Bob Woodruff knew the risks and he took them. Amanpour apparently believes that paying the dues of complicit journalism, practiced by CNN under Eason Jordan when the Saddam regime was in power, is well worth it. But, what is that cost?

Amanpour works for a news organization that historically has felt it better to provide filtered (and therefore false) news safely, than it is to produce truthful news under duress. Another option would, of course, be to provide the best news possible from a distance.

"This is not acceptable what's going on there and it's a terrible situation."

Of course it is not acceptable. Was the former Iraqi regime acceptable? Is Amanpour suggesting that today's situation in Iraq, with 30,000 dead over the past 3 years, is any less acceptable than the Saddam situation when nearly 2,000,000 died as a direct result of his government and military actions over previous 24 years? Does Amanpour possess any knowledge that would lead her to believe that had we not attacked Iraq, that Saddam would have joined the "peace movement?"

AMANPOUR: "It's a spiraling security disaster... And by any indication whether you take the number of journalists killed or wounded, whether you take the number of Iraqi soldiers killed and wounded, contractors, people working there, it just gets worse and worse."

When measuring death, the totals will always get worse and worse, because totals are a mounting figure, and we do tire of war. We tire of the deaths, the destruction, the bombings and kidnappings. We hurt inside when we see filmed footage of journalists kidnapped and beheaded and when we hear of injuries to all innocents. (Incidentally, many of us Americans also hurt when we hear of our brave soldiers being killed and injured on the field of battle, a group Amanpour conspicuously leaves outside her sympathic commentary.)

By diverting our eyes like the CNN, do we clear our consciences if the killing continues unabated? By pointing our fingers and screaming safely at a distance like the UN and the American left, should we feel like we have done enough? Our President doesn't think so, and conservatives generally feel the same way, and our country and coalition have acted to free a people at tremendous cost.

CNN, Eason Jordan and Christiane Amanpour come down solidly on the other side of this argument--with their own brand of clear consciences I might add.

A conscience, it appears, isn't nearly as expensive as it used to be.

(All emphasis mine.)