Baghdad has fallen, and the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein has collapsed. We are treated to television images of Iraqis dancing in the streets of America and Baghdad. American troops join Iraqi citizens in toppling a statue of Saddam. Surely, those of us who protested the invasion of Iraq must admit the error of our ways. Unfortunately, life and history are rarely as simplistic as Fox News would have us believe.

One of the major problems in observing this televised war from our living rooms is the lack of multiple perspectives. The corporate mainstream media in this nation has ill served the American people, uncritically accepting administration and Pentagon claims of the war's aims. For example, before the invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Powell focused the administration's case on Saddam developing weapons of mass destruction and his alleged ties to international terrorism, which have never been adequately documented. On the other hand, in his speech on the eve of invasion, President Bush gave Saddam forty-eight hours to get out of town, while using Wilsonian rhetoric to shift the focus of the war to liberating the Iraqi people. The mainstream media unquestionably accepted this shift in emphasis, even adopting the Pentagon's nomenclature of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In a rush to embrace images of World War II and liberating Europe, the media seemed to forget all the issues that had driven debate at the United Nations in the months preceding the war.

Much of the nation's one-dimensional perspective of the War in Iraq came from journalists embedded with the American troops. And, indeed, this was an important point of view which should be available to the American public. Much like Albuquerque's acclaimed Ernie Pyle in the Second World War, these embedded journalists identified with the soldiers with whom they share the war experience. There is a natural tendency to lose objectivity in such a situation, but some fine reporting, as the work of Pyle attests, may result. The problem with the current situation is that the war was only viewed through the eyes of American soldiers. The media effort to support the troops severely limited the American public's ability to attain differing perspectives on the war.

We viewed footage of protests against the war in foreign capitals, but where were the interviews and analysis which would explain why much of the world was--and is--so opposed to military action by the United States and Britain? In a similar vein, images of protesters being arrested in the streets of America were a staple of war coverage, but did reporters bother to inquire why these individuals were challenging the policies of the Bush administration? Nor did we see the mainstream media presenting alternative perspectives on the war. Every major news network seems to have had embedded former generals to analyze the war and military strategy for television audiences. But did we see any prominent scholarly critics of the war, such as Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn, provided with precious air time? (Of course, there was more opportunity for expressing differing opinions on the op-ed pages, but most Americans do not get their news via the print media.) A democracy should have a contentious but civil discourse, yet this was hardly evident on the public airwaves.

Also, we need multiple perspectives. Why weren't some journalists embedded with Iraqi doctors so that we might have been better able to evaluate the human cost of American military intervention? Some pictures from Iraqi hospitals might have presented Americans with a less sanitized view of war than that produced by "shock and awe" explosions. And why not some stories on Iraqi soldiers who fought bravely and died with little choice? Each Iraqi casualty was more than a number. Just as with each American death, which the media justly treated on an individual basis, every Iraqi soldier killed in combat had a personal story with grieving friends and relatives. Such a perspective, however, would humanize the enemy and make it more difficult to fight a war. Such media coverage, similar to great works of art like Erich Maria Remarque's classic antiwar novel All Quiet on the Western Front, might have given us pause in our rush to war.

Yet, defenders of the war will take us back to the Iraqis cheering the troops and observe that the human cost was necessary for freedom and liberation. These scenes of jubilation, however, should be viewed with a more skeptical eye than that expressed by the mainstream media. Of course, many Iraqis are glad that Saddam is gone and that the war is over. But will the American be perceived as liberators or colonizers in the days ahead? Despite official statements regarding support for Iraqi democracy, the administration's plans for a postwar Iraq envision a greater role for the American military than UN humanitarian organizations. Also, the role of American oil companies and lucrative contracts for such corporations as Haliburton in the postwar reconstruction of Iraq certainly suggests that the United States will frown upon an Iraqi nationalism that might threaten American economic interests. In addition, aggressive rhetoric from Washington aimed at Syria and Iran suggests that the military conflict in the Middle East may be expanded.

The mainstream media have termed the war against Iraq a success for the Bush administration, while poking fun at celebrities such as Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon who voiced opposition to the war. It is much too early to leap to such conclusions, reflecting the media's short attention span and lack of historical perspective. Certainly, the military strategy of the United States achieved its purpose of defeating Saddam's regime upon the battlefield, yet it is premature to declare victory. American troops who were cheered for overthrowing Saddam may become the target of Iraqis frustrated in the months and years to come if political and economic expectations for self determination are not forthcoming.

The quagmire in Iraq, and in Afghanistan, may come as the United States becomes entangled in sectarian and tribal conflicts from which the administration appears to have no exit strategy. The American experience in Afghanistan should raise some qualms regarding premature victory celebrations. President Reagan provided financial and military assistance to combat the Soviet invasion, comparing the Afghan freedom fighters with America's founding fathers. Yet, a few years later embittered Afghans provided bases from which terrorist attacks were launched against the United States. Long-term American occupation of Iraq will undermine political stability in the Middle East and threaten the security of the United States. News headlines obscure the fact that the history of the Iraq War has yet to be written.

The embedded media, focusing upon the prophecy of Iraqi liberation, has raised few such questions. Many of us who initially opposed the war continue to have major reservations, but we seem embedded in an America that seeks to quell the voices of dissent.