By AMANDA KNOWLES
Observer staff
March 19, 2008

REUTERS photo by Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud.
U.S. soldiers patrol at sunset in Salman Pak, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, on Feb.16. As the conflict in Iraq reaches the five-year mark, many wonder what the next step in Iraq policy will be. The issue continues to be a hot topic for the American public and politicians, and remains a point of contention in the presidential election race.

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War – a conflict that has continued to spark controversy, evoke strong emotions from all sides, cause national economic concerns, fuel political debates and splinter the American public into starkly opposing sides. Looking back at what is arguably the most provocative U.S. war since Vietnam, it is easy to point fingers and lay blame on everyone from President Bush to the members of Congress to the American press. And, perhaps, it is even easier to hypothesize about the best plan of action from here on out, whether realistic or improbable. The Observer presents a look at the Iraq War, five years in:

The Observer’s Lagan Sebert writes, “Helen Thomas, the maverick political reporter who has covered every White House since the Kennedy administration, has said the U.S. news media went into a ‘coma’ in the lead-up to the Iraq War.” Thomas has not been alone in her criticism of the news media’s pre-war coverage. As reported in Michael C. Moynihan’s “Media Culpa: Blaming the press for Iraq,” filmmaker Michael Moore told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “We wouldn’t be in this war if you had done your job.” Observer reporter Federica Narancio writes that several U.S. newspapers, namely The New York Times and Washington Post, published editorials in which they “apologized to readers for the lack of criticism and rigor in the newspaper’s pre-war coverage.” Both papers acknowledged that, despite honest and faithful reporting, the fundamental journalistic tool of skepticism was lacking in examining the Bush administration’s motives in going to war.

The Observer’s Caine O’Rear adds Bill Moyers to the list of critics of the media’s handling of the run-up to the war, citing the journalist’s PBS documentary “Buying the War”: “Moyers suggested that only Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers…did their job in the prelude to the war.” Observer reporter Lisa Tanger notes that news media industry’s “internal self-examination has largely been prompted by a sea-change in public opinion about the war,” citing significant drops in public support of the war and the Bush administration’s initial decision to use military force against Iraq. These four reporters now take a look at four U.S. newspapers in the six weeks leading up to the U.S. declaration of war against Iraq in the hope of determining whether critics such as Helen Thomas were right: Was the American press in a coma, bound by a national sense of patriotism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks?

> Tennessean balanced pre-war editorial opinion with fair reporting
By LAGAN SEBERT

> San Francisco Chronicle escaped pre-war coverage “coma”
By FEDERICA NARANCIO

> Dallas Morning News offered mediocre performance in pre-war coverage
By CAINE O’REAR

> Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pursued truth, journalistic principles prior to war
By LISA TANGER

Five years of war has resulted in thousands of military casualties. It has also, however, produced heroes – some whose actions have been heralded in the press and by the military, and others whose actions have gone largely unrecognized. Since the start of the Iraq War, three men have been awarded the military’s highest tribute, the Medal of Honor. One of those men was Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who died in 2004 trying to save his men from a grenade explosion. Wall Street Journal reporter Michael M. Phillips chronicled Cpl. Dunham’s story in his book, “The Gift of Valor.”

> Book Review: “The Gift of Valor”
By EUN SIL KANG

Throughout the war’s tumultuous five years, politicians as well as the general public have raised concerns ranging from the growing number of American casualties to the refusal of the Bush administration to provide a definite date for the withdrawal of combat troops. Among these concerns also loomed the mounting national debt, and the ever-increasing budget for fighting an unpopular war. As the war enters its sixth year, some experts say the overall cost of U.S. operations in Iraq will exceed $3 trillion.

> Economists: Iraq war could cost $3 trillion
By CASEY LABRACK

See what others are saying about the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War: Journalism students in American University’s Washington Semester program present a slideshow look at D.C.’s observance of the fifth-year anniversary of the war; Reporting on the anniversary and commemorative events floods the blogosphere.

> See how the anniversary is observed in D.C. and nationwide

Read more Observer coverage of the Iraq War. A study by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism shows surge in false statements made by President Bush and top aides prior to war.

> Report: Drumbeat of false statements led to war