Ground Rule 9 for the media covering President Bush's presidential visit Monday sounded more like an edict from Beijing or a banana republic.
"Write positive stories about Ft. Carson and the U.S. Army," Ground Rule 9 commanded.
That would have been easier if Ground Rule 3 of the presidential visit had not also forbidden reporters to talk to any soldiers or their families before, during or after the president's appearance.
"Are we authorized to take their papers?" one soldier working with the press corps asked a colleague after catching reporters interviewing folks after the ceremony.
There are plenty of positive stories to write about the men and women serving in Iraq. That includes soldiers from Fort Carson, 31 of whom have died in the war.
Members of the military who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan and on other battlefields in the war on terrorism deserve support. The president was right to come to Colorado to praise them. His handlers were dead wrong to try to keep them from talking.
The Army and the White House collaborated on the gag order, a formal written list of 10 "Ground Rules" passed out to all reporters. The instruction to write positive stories was meant to be tongue-in-check, said Maj. Russell Goemaere, Fort Carson's deputy public affairs officer. Goemaere said the Army didn't seek to shut down access to the troops.
A White House spokesman, Allen Abney, called the restrictions a "logistics issue."
Logistics, as in too many reporters and not enough public affairs people to shadow them.
You turn journalists on the unsuspecting troops and who knows how the liberal media will twist what they say. They might just end up with guys like Green Beret Warrant Officer John Herring. Herring has been to Iraq. He had nothing but praise for the president's support for the troops.
Herring especially liked the part of the president's speech where Bush vowed to finish the job started by Herring and others who risked or lost their lives.
Bush's call to stay the course "reinforces what he's been saying all along," Herring said as he waited for a bus outside the helicopter hangar where the president had just spoken. "It's important for there to be a consistent message. To hear him say it here is good for everyone."
To censor the people called on to make sacrifices is not. They are as disciplined and courageous as the president told them they were in Monday's speech. They are also smart enough to speak for themselves.
Monday's rules of engagement were not the norm at presidential appearances I've attended. When then-President Clinton honored the crew of the USS Cole after it was targeted by a terrorist bombing in Yemen, reporters roamed the crowd getting quotes. When Bush spoke to sailors at the Norfolk Naval Base earlier in his administration, reporters were equally free to seek the thoughts of those who heard him.
Monday's Ground Rule 6 — "no roaming" — amounted to a heavy-handed smack at the First Amendment. But it was an insult to the intelligence of military men and women and their families as much as it was an indictment of the media.
Bush and his lieutenants believe newspapers, television and radio focus on the negative events of Iraq. The president, vice president and the secretary of defense have all accused the media of filtering out good news.
Well, Monday was a chance to get some good press for people who deserve it. Instead, White House and Army officials went to great lengths to make sure it wouldn't happen.
Standing before a 30-by-50-foot American flag, preaching to a choir of 4,000 uniformed, flag-waving troops, Bush wore an olive green flight jacket with a red and black Fort Carson insignia sewn on it. Family members of the dead gathered to his right. A couple of hundred soldiers sat behind him on the stage.
"This war depends on people in uniform and the support of their families," the president told them all.
The White House needs to have more faith in the people on whom it depends.
If there are problems with the war in Iraq, they don't come from the folks doing the fighting. Those men and women are doing a heck of a job. If there are problems, they stem from spin doctoring.
We must invade Iraq without U.N. support. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Saddam Hussein was behind the attack on the World Trade Center.
All Iraqis will welcome us as conquering heroes as soon as we depose Hussein.
Iraqi oil will pay to rebuild the country.
Major combat has ended.
Mission accomplished.
The White House sent these messages, not the troops. A sergeant in sand-colored camouflage combat fatigues succinctly summed up the reason the president shouldn't fear letting the troops or their families talk, even if a handful of them say things that make him look bad.
"He's the commander in chief," the sergeant said of Bush. "Whatever he says, I support it. I don't have any say."
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