TV Reviews : Moyers Throws Cold Water on Gulf Victory

To state, as Bill Moyers does in his PBS report, “After the War” (tonight at 9 p.m., Channels 28 and 15; 10 p.m., Channel 50), that the guidepost of U.S. policy during the Persian Gulf War was “stability and access to oil,” is to state the obvious. The curiosity is that, in the current national climate awash in yellow ribbons, Moyers’ remark is bound to raise a lot of hackles.

For that matter, his hourlong inventory of the war’s grimly ironic fallout is sure to stir waves of resentment from a public just coming down from the euphoria. In pointing out that only a fraction of the stated U.S. goals have been accomplished, that the victory was qualified, Moyers is being the ultimate party-pooper.

“After the War” divides into two thematic parts. First is the tallying of the war’s human cost: the still-uncounted Iraqi dead; the outbreak in Iraq of horrendous diseases ranging from typhoid to cholera; Moyers’ (albeit unsubstantiated) claim that only 7% of missiles targeted at Iraq were “smart” and that 70% of all missiles missed their targets; the Kurdish and Shiite refugees bombed by Saddam after hoped-for U.S. military support never appeared.

The second theme is how war news coverage was sanitized to suit U.S. designs. Here is bloody imagery--largely care of Britain’s Channel 4 correspondents--of what the war looked like on the ground, not on an airborne video screen.

Moyers feels angry, and the anger stems from the sense that we’re being duped again. With Saddam still in ruthless control, Kuwait still ruled by a dogged monarchy, Middle East nations stocking arms like a drug fix, and democracy still only a pleasant idea, Moyers seems reasonable in wondering if a yellow-ribbon party isn’t an escape from reality.