Spinning on the Axis of Evil: America's War Against Iraq

2003, Esprit de Corps Books, 231 pages, 111 illustrations.

Spinning on the Axis of Evil documents the trips Canada's top war reporter has made to Iraq since 2000. Each time, the author spent days traveling the cities and countryside, often winding up in considerable physical danger, just to find out what people were saying, doing, and thinking. Unlike the usual "embedded" Iraq war reportage-lite, Taylor's in-depth focus results in a unique and unforgettable narrative that adds considerably to our understanding of America's most destructive intervention since Vietnam.

Soldier-turned-writer Scott Taylor first won the enmity of the Canadian military brass for exposing corruption in the ranks, and then scrambled through various Balkan war zones, winding up in all the wrong places at just the right time. And, while continuing to publish a Canadian military magazine (Esprit de Corps), he made television appearances as an analyst for Situation Report and CNN. Far from being the typical retired quarterback-commentator, Taylor stepped up his travels – and especially, to Iraq.

Taylor's methodical practice of recording the situation on the ground before, during, and after a conflict makes him stand out in this age of parachute journalists blinded by "the fog of war," as Geraldo once put it. Having spent years researching, visiting and making contacts, Taylor knew in advance how to operate in Iraq. Most importantly, Taylor was not cowed into writing the kind of laudatory review that the US government and its neoconservative warmongers demanded.

An Apt Title

What kind of book is this? Well, its title speaks volumes. The phrase "Axis of Evil" has become an artifact in the history of the war ever since President Bush first used it in early 2002 as a manifesto against Saddam Hussein. Prefacing it with "spinning" simultaneously alludes to the vertiginous, chaotic state of Iraq that followed Bush's remark and subsequent war; as well as to the propaganda spin both the US government and the Hussein Administration dished out to journalists. As Taylor writes, "…the truth was that almost all of the media's reporting on this conflict was being closely monitored and controlled by whichever faction or organization they were in contact with" (p. 177). Rarely does a book's title sum up so well its major themes.

The Realities of an Unreal Media: a Kosovo Prelude

Taylor's narrative begins in Belgrade, in the penultimate moments of NATO's 1999 bombing of Kosovo. This provides overlap between the author's two projects – the Balkans and Iraq. First of all, Taylor notes the type of flawed media coverage predominating in Kosovo, which would be resurrected in Iraq 4 years later. The second connection is personal: a Yugoslav embassy official in Canada invited Taylor to lunch at a restaurant owned by an Iraqi immigrant, a man who would later prove instrumental in arranging Taylor's initial contacts in Iraq.

The first chapter summarizes some of the author's prior observations recorded in Inat: Images of Serbia and the Kosovo Conflict, an excoriating condemnation of the US government lies that were used to sell an unnecessary and destructive war – something that would happen once again in Iraq four years later. As in Iraq, the media's war efforts were expedited by a general ignorance of the Balkans. Taylor's best example here is a depressingly hilarious telephone exchange he had with a "young research assistant" from the Canadian Broadcasting Company. On 3 June 1999, the 72^nd day of NATO's air campaign, Belgrade was under fire yet again from allied planes. Taylor, one of the few Western journalists there at the time, was asked by the research assistant about the "mood among the Albanians," now that a peace agreement had been signed. Patiently explaining that Belgrade was over 400 kilometers from the refugee camps in Macedonia, Taylor reminded her that the war was very much still on, peace agreement notwithstanding.

Not to be deterred, the CBC assistant asked whether the Serbs in Belgrade were "happy for" the refugees, now that they were going back to Kosovo. Taylor explained that, lacking power and water and, "…on the receiving end of yet another air attack," the Serbs probably had more important things to think about "than the mood of the Albanians."

To this quite sensible response, Taylor's interlocutor huffed, "…that is rather insensitive of them, don't you think?" Brushing off this absurdity, our narrator asked if the CBC would be interested in the fact that air raids were continuing, despite the announced peace deal. No thanks, said the assistant: "…tonight's lead story is about the peace celebrations, so the air attack would only be confusing to our viewers" (pp. 11-12).

Categorizing the Axis

This is the reality of what independent journalists like Taylor would soon be up against in Iraq. Colossal ignorance of geography, culture, history, and society, combined with the slickest Pentagon PR efforts ever, helped sell the US government line. When we add to this the omnipresent factor of cutthroat competition among journalists, it's not hard to see how the war was spun.

Helpfully, the book contains a short history of Iraq in the 20^th century. Taylor shows how, far from being a recent phenomenon, American (and earlier, British) intervention has formed and deformed the entire Middle East. From his opening quote, attributed to Henry Kissinger ("oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs"), we are reminded that the history of Iraq is inextricably intertwined with the story of war for natural resources.

Background to a Tragedy

Following his denunciation of Kosovo "spin," and the Iraq history lesson, Taylor reminisces on his first visits to Iraq (during the 1991 Gulf War). The author laments the fact that his inexperience made him produce coverage that was admittedly "..naïve and heavy on the rah-rah" (p. 16). Learning more about Iraq, however, caused Taylor to change his views.

In what follows, Taylor provides damning evidence against the interventionism of the past three American administrations. He reminds us that the Gulf War never actually stopped; it merely took a different form between 1991-2003. After the US intervention, Saddam solidified his tyrannical rule, cracking down on Kurdish and Shiite uprisings. Meanwhile, a silent war was being waged against the Iraqi people: UN sanctions and the wasteland of decaying munitions (like depleted uranium) wreaked havoc with their health. The author quotes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who, when confronted on 60 Minutes with the reality of 500,000 Iraqi children dead because of sanctions said, "…we think it is worth it" (p. 44). The number of photographs detailing these devastating results of sanctions and war is a major (and gruesome) asset of Spinning on the Axis of Evil.

Taylor also reminds us that the Clinton Administration continued regular (if sometimes unreported) bombings. What would be considered a state of war in most countries was treated as everyday reality by Iraqis. Further, the author shows (pp. 39-40) how the vaunted "oil-for-food" program was just a UN shakedown: the scheme "…provided the perpetually cash-strapped international agency with a $600 million windfall." The Iraqi government, faced with crippling sanctions, could only qualify for contracts tightly controlled by the US, and sold its oil at a loss – and, with damage to its dilapidated oil wells.

In contrast to the optimistic predictions of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld in early 2003, Taylor details how the cumulative effect of sanctions created a festering anti-Americanism that would emerge to deadly effect later:

"…the only reason Iraqis were suffering and dying, they (the Americans) said, was because of Saddam's personal greed and power-mongering, not because the sanctions had created shortages. For the average Iraqi, however, the delays and sanctions became a focus for simmering anger and frustration. If the United States' intention was to undermine the people's support for Saddam Hussein, then the plan backfired.

"…instead, the object of the Iraqis' animosity was the United States, the country they blamed for the ongoing embargo" (p. 41).

It would not have taken a genius to predict that operation "Iraqi Freedom" would be considered a hostile invasion, and not a liberating one. However, the US government banked on its citizens' collective ignorance – and was proven right. Reading this book helps Americans to understand that the Iraqi reality has always been wildly different than the government claimed. Taylor's photographs and first-hand testimony provide compelling evidence that a massive human tragedy has taken place in Iraq – one for which the United States is largely accountable. After reading this book, even the most sclerotic red-blooded American patriot will have to agree with the author that even if Saddam represented "evil," he "did not have a monopoly on it."

More Essential Services: Informing Disinformation

Spinning on the Axis of Evil's analysis of US government propaganda is particularly amusing when Taylor quotes US military personnel, some of whom spout the kind of G.I. Joe bravado that gives the army a bad reputation abroad. We are treated to the remarkably incongruous sight of a tank full of "good ole' boy" rednecks sporting a Confederate flag, speeding along right behind another one manned by black soldiers blasting gangsta rap (p. 203). Then there is the tough-talking Special Forces soldier in Turkey who bloviates, "when George Bush, our Commander in Chief, tells us to start the music, we are going to rock and roll" (p. 162).

However, when the same soldiers had to face the music they started, their perceptions changed. Taylor's final interviews (from September 2003) offer poignant glimpses of American soldiers' present reality, demoralized, far from home and in constant danger. We hear from the grumpy sergeant who complains that he and his men are booze and sex-starved (p. 213), about female solders getting "knocked up" just to get out of Iraq (p. 214), and the tank commander who muses on his statistical rate of being killed in battle (p. 213), while hoping to someday go home and "…forget forever that there is a place on earth called Iraq."

Some Drawbacks in Style and Substance

Stylistically, Taylor is more of a Hemingway than a Fisk, though not as eloquent as either. While his terse, just-the-facts approach to war reporting keeps the book moving along at a good clip, it can also prove somewhat flat. True, this style keeps him from preaching, or engaging in the dubious British style of emotive narrative; nevertheless, some of the situations recorded are so remarkable (almost getting shot by nervous Iraqi soldiers, attempting to bicycle into Iraq through a Turkish minefield, etc.) that a little bit more of a literary flourish would have been a nice touch, and certainly permissible.

While Taylor uses larger world events to stitch his narrative together, the book's structural strength – its snapshot view of events before, during, and after the Iraq war – can also be a weakness. Since Taylor's Iraq visits came at three to four month intervals, and only for up to two weeks at a time, the book sometimes lacks a real sense of narrative continuity or organic wholeness. So, while the same characters pop up again and again in various chapters, we fail to get a real sense of the war's impact on them beyond their immediate fury, shame, depression and sadness.

Taylor is also sometimes elusive, leaving tantalizing characters and events hanging. But, if his reticence is a flaw, it is one that leaves the reader impatient to know more.

Monitoring the Media's Gaffes in Iraq

In parallel with Taylor's factual account of the war is his coverage of the media's coverage of the war – a fascinating subject in its own right. We are reminded often of the competitive nature of war reporters, who will do almost anything to "get the story." Thus we hear of one Spaniard who paid $2,500 to be illegally smuggled from Turkey into Iraq, and another who bribed an aid worker to change places with him in the delivery truck (p. 178). We also get disturbing confirmation of the cutthroat quality of journalistic competition, when an unknown reporter endangers Taylor's life by telling Saddam's men that he is a "Mossad spy."

Charging that media coverage of the war amounted to "an exercise in bluff and deception" (p. 174), Taylor recounts the exploits of news agencies that purported to be giving firsthand accounts:

"…to pull this off successfully, networks were relying heavily on the general public's relative ignorance of this region and its geography, and the basic premises of news gathering and dissemination.

For instance, a journalistic low point occurred during one of Fox Television's weekend reports about the allied military buildup just south of Baghdad. To provide analysis of this subject, the anchor went live to his correspondent in Amman to ask, 'just how capable are the Iraqi Republican Guard units after the allied softening-up bombardments?'

Without a pause, the young woman in Jordan went on at great length describing the troop strength and possible morale of Saddam's Medina division of the elite Republican Guard. Most viewers would simply accept this report at face value, without questioning how an American reporter based 1,200 kilometres from the fighting – and with no access to Iraqi military officials – could possibly know anything more than what had been included in the Pentagon's assessments. However, by tagging the information with a Middle Eastern dateline, mere speculation suddenly appeared to be credible reporting" (p. 175).

Forcing Obedience

Taylor also gives some compelling reasons for the media's generally limp and compliant war coverage. Taylor cites the case of NBC reporter Peter Arnett, who was fired for saying that the initial US attack had "failed to meet its objectives." Taylor speculates that the network's decision to sack him sent

"…a very clear message to all its correspondents that negativity (even when supported by fact) will not be tolerated in this war. Journalists who were lucky enough to be embedded with front-line units knew there was a tremendously long waiting list of eager, young reporters who were anxious to take their place. Obviously, any commentary that would be embarrassing to either the detachment or the commander would result in a one-way ticket home" (p. 178).

Taylor also notes the haughty, even imperialistic attitude that he witnessed amongst some of his American comrades, a large number of whom ran up extensive hotel bills and then left the country without paying. One reporter, when confronted, crumpled his invoice into a ball and threw it at the manager, saying, 'consider that the price of your freedom'" (p. 202).

If such behavior indicates that the kind of Wolfowitz or Perle-like tyrants extend right down through the "objective" press corps, then we are doubly indebted to journalists such as Scott Taylor, writers who remember that they are in a foreign country as guests, not overlords, and who treat the people they meet with fairness and respect. Until the imperial, self-centered mindset disappears from American journalism, it is not likely that the imperial, self-centered policy of the government will disappear either. Spinning on the Axis of Evil is a corrective to this defect, one of the only books thus far to have presented the human side of the Iraq catastrophe with compassion and insight. It thoroughly lives up to its dedication "…to all the innocents that have suffered and died in Iraq: first as the victims of their own brutal dictator and then as the collateral damage of international power-brokering, lies and greed."

What place, then, should Spinning on the Axis of Evil occupy on the history buff's bookshelf? The author himself would probably admit that it is not the overarching synthesis that readers should turn to for a comprehensive view of the Iraqi war. In any case, it is too early for such a book, considering that now (late January 2004) Iraq is still far from stable. To be sure, there are plenty of chapters yet to be written in the history of this war.

For all that, Taylor's book is not simply ephemeral, not just a dashed-off account forced into print because of its timeliness. Rather, it is a cohesive work with many years of painstaking research and experience behind it. That said, Spinning on the Axis of Evil is most important as a vital supplement to the larger historical record on Iraq. Any subsequent history that aspires to be comprehensive must use it as a major source. The author's observations, experiences and citations are unique, detailed, and lucidly presented. Even more so than in his previous accounts of war in the Balkans, Scott Taylor has written a highly original work containing unique observations of Iraq under the guns of "liberation."