How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Stock footage," one of the cameramen said. "They have huge vaults of this kind of stuff in case they need it as background for a real story."
"Are you saying this isn't a real war?" Captain Coles asked.
"Not this part of it," the cameraman said. "This is about as real as Little Red Riding Hood." (12.127-129)
The ceremony Birdy and the others are watching is nothing more than the creation of propaganda. The next phase of the war is supposed to be Iraqis taking control of their own country, and the news is trying to show that Americans are that far along.
Quote #8
Earlier that morning we had received word that Saddam's two sons had been killed in a firefight. Reporters were running around shoving mikes into faces and getting the responses they expected. Al Jazeera was trying to spice up their stories with talk about whether the sons' bodies should have been displayed.
"They're tryng to play it down the middle." Evans was sipping from a plastic cup of coffee. "I bet they're coming off a lot different when they talk to the Arabs." (12.183-184)
Al Jazeera is an Arabic news network. Evans is probably right that the way they report on the deaths would be different than the reporting in American news.
Quote #9
What was the right way to report a war? A neat list of names in a hometown newspaper? Maybe your picture in The New York Times?
That was all that mattered. Nothing was ever settled. It was just who was dying and who was coming home. (12.184-185)
Pendleton has just died, and Birdy is coming into his point of view on the war—that it's about survival. Nothing is more important than who dies and who survives.