I Arul Aram
Two major events took place on January 31, 2006, each on the different shores of the Atlantic. And they are set to change the world. In the US, President George Bush in his State of the Union address warned Americans that their country is ?addicted to oil? from the ?unstable? Middle East and they need to look for alternative sources of energy. On the other side of the Atlantic, UK media unanimously raised voice against the war in Iraq in the context of the 100th death of the country¿s soldier. Prime Minister Tony Blair¿s defence of the deaths saying ?for sake of democracy we must see this through? went unheard. Mr Bush¿s address too was eclipsed in the British press by the news of the 100th British soldier killed.
This is how headlines and pictures on the front pages of British newspapers looked the next day. No picture was that of the body of the dead soldier but invariably a smart close-up file photo of the soldier in uniform.
The Daily Telegraph
A big picture of the soldier in the dark background with the words written in the background ¿SACRIFICE - The 100th British serviceman dies in Iraq¿
The Guardian
With a big picture of the soldier, the headline read ¿Blair refuses to be swayed by death of 100th British soldier¿
The Independent
The front page is full of names the 100 soldiers who died in Iraq with words in the middle, ?The 100th British soldier dies in Iraq?
The Times
A big picture of the soldier with a headline ¿100th soldier dies¿
The Mail
A big picture of the soldier with a headline ¿How many more Mr Blair?¿
Newspapers like The Daily Mirror, Daily Express and The Mail carried the news on the front page but a big, glamourous picture of model Kate (questioned by police in a cocaine case) or actress Keira ( tipped for the Oscars) dominated.
To counter America`s reliance on oil from ?unstable parts of the world?, Mr Bush announced he would seek investment in alternative energy sources with the goal of replacing 75 per cent of oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. No doubt, this is an indirect admission from Mr Bush that the West¿s active engagement and military presence in the Gulf is primarily for oil. For decades, America has kept its investment in researches on alternative energy low and even kept its oil wells capped. But now Mr Bush said the best way to break this addiction [of getting Gulf oil] is through technology, and he pledged to seek a 22% increase in funding for clean energy research, including nuclear and renewable energy. British newspapers carried the news of Mr Bush¿s State of the Union address on inside pages but lead the report with his remark signalling the new era of looking inwards for America¿s energy requirements.
British newspapers reacted angrily to the grim milestone in the war in Iraq with the 100th British soldier killed. The soldier Corporal Gordon Alexander Pritchard, 31, was a cavalryman with the Scots Dragoon Guards. He was married with three children under five. He was killed by a roadside bomb. Cpl Pritchard, from Edinburgh, died when insurgents targeted three vehicles collecting water and supplies in the port of Um Qasr, south of Basra. The Times pointed out in a front page strap line that the soldier was killed in the town where the Iraq invasion began. The war in Iraq started near Um Qasr when commandos advanced up the Fao peninsula and stormed two oil installations.
According to The Daily Telegraph, of the 100 deaths, one of which was a woman, 77 have been killed by hostile action while 23 died from accidents or other causes. More than 2,200 US troops have died.
News of the 100th death came less than 24 hours after Lance Corporal Allan Douglas, 22, was killed in an ambush outside a police station. The Times said that at the family home in Aberdeen, Alan¿s mother Diane and father Walter described their son as a ?lovely lad? who had not wanted to go to Iraq. Walter Douglas told the Daily Record: ?Allan was against the war. He couldn¿t see the point of it - but he thought it was his duty to be there and he had no choice.? His mother added: ?He was home just before Christmas. That¿s the last time we saw him. He told me he wasn¿t looking forward to Iraq. He knew himself it wasn¿t going to be a good one.?
Newspapers juxtaposed similar quotes related to the previous death with that of a brave front put up by Gordon¿s parents, amid the media hype of the grim milestone. Gordon¿s parents said about him: ?He was the epitome of a modern professional soldier. He was a well-trained, well-motivated soldier serving in a regiment that he was extremely proud of, as did his father and elder brother. He was a loving son and a very proud family man and he`ll be very deeply missed by us all.?
On the sidelines of taking part at an international summit in London to coordinate support for the fledgling Afghan government, Mr Blair said on television that ?It is a tragedy when any soldier died. Our response has got to be not to walk away from the situation but to redouble our efforts to make sure the people of Afghanistan and Iraq achieve the democracy they want.?
Anti-war campaigners, including six MPs, read the names of the 100 dead and planted wooden crosses bearing red poppies in Parliament Square that night. The Independent pointed out that a similar act recently led to the arrests of a young man and a woman, but this time the police did not intervene.
British newspapers across the spectrum are against the war in Iraq. They have joined hands with the civil society in pressuring Mr Blair to fix a deadline for the withdrawal of troops. The limelight was on the tragedy and the need to end further tragedies. Daily Express carried an aggressive headline, ¿Our 100th soldier killed for a lie: So what does Blair do?¿
There were also other related stories. One was about how three and a half years ago Gordon was one of the first British troops to reach the scruffy border town of Um Qasr at the start of the invasion of Iraq. Another was about the Army investigators wanting to discover if the bomb that killed Gordon was a sophisticated device that had been smuggled over the border into Iraq from Iran, and whether the diplomatic dispute with Tehran over its nuclear programme has encouraged Iran to sponsor attacks by insurgents on British forces.
While British newspapers were obsessed with the grim milestone of the death of the 100th British soldier, it may a take a day of two for them to analyse the implications of Mr Bush¿s new policy of going in for alternative sources of energy. In spite of the West¿s concern over rising prices of oil, countries in the West including the US have kept the petrol price low compared to the high costs of other commodities in their countries. Let us hope in America of the future, drivers will stop at fuel stations and fill their cars with hydrogen or ethanol. Mr Bush told a recent interview with CBS ?I agree with Americans who understand being hooked on foreign oil as an economic problem and a national security problem.? The coming days will tell us whether the media follows up on these two events leading to a de-escalation of the Western military presence in the Middle East.