Watching TV As A Survival Strategy
What’s it like for the targets of such a heavily mediated war? Rich nations can use their spysats and UAVs to gather intelligence while poor nations are reduced to watching the TV for vital information…
From high-rise buildings, shops and homes came the thunder of crashing glass as the shock waves swept across the Tigris river in both directions. Minute after minute the missiles came in. Many Iraqis had watched – as I had – television film of those ominous B-52 bombers taking off from Britain only six hours earlier. Like me, they had noted the time, added three hours for Iraqi time in front of London and guessed that, at around 9pm, the terror would begin. The B-52s, almost certainly firing from outside Iraqi airspace, were dead on time.