Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

Analysis:

This story is based upon a town hall forum held at the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids and hosted by 3rd Congressional District Representative Vern Ehlers. The Fox 17 story does mention that a variety of issues were raised during the Question and answer portion of the forum, but only mentions Katrina, trade with China and Global warming in passing. Several questions posed by the audience and particularly by members of the group ACTIVATE focused on the ongoing US occupation of Iraq. Only one of the audience members are cited in the story and it is only part of the question. You can hear the rest of the question and the whole forum that was recorded by Media Mouse. The question was referring to the British journal The Lancet, but the Fox 17 story excluded the source, even though the questioner stated where the 650,000 Iraq dead figure had come from. The response by Congressman Ehlers that channel 17 provided was an edited response, where the Congressman makes claims about the number of Iraqis killed under Saddam Hussien as opposed to the US Occupation. However, the Congressman does not provide a source for his claim and WXMI 17 never bothers to investigate those claims either. Instead, the story ends with a mention that there was a high school art award ceremony after the forum.

Story:

News Reader: A group in West Michigan had the chance to go one-on-one with Congressman Vern Ehlers today. An open floor discussion at the Ford Museum this morning. The Congressman took questions from a variety of topics ranging from rebuilding Katrina homes to trade with China and global warming. The hot topic overall? The war in Iraq.

Audience Member: The British journal has said that at least 650,000 Iraqis have died since the beginning of the war. And you’ve signed off on all of this, and those would constitute war crimes. How would you respond to that?

Congressman Ehlers: To the best of my knowledge there are considerably fewer people killed in this war so far–I’m talking about Iraqis–then were killed by Saddam Hussein during his regime. Neither one justifies the other, I’m just saying it’s a tough country.

News Reader: Congressman Ehlers also honored local students for outstanding academic achievement and announced the winners of the annual Congressional high school art competition.

Analysis:

This front page story is based on the Grand Rapids Press look at recent Federal Election Commission records on who in West Michigan is making large donations to Presidential candidates. Three GOP donors were cited in the story and two Democratic donors. Very little information is provided as to why people are making such large donations other than the comments by Kate Pew Walters who thinks that people will back a Democratic candidate because of Bush’s foreign policy. The reporter does not ask for a clarifying question about what differentiates Bush’s foreign policy from that of the Democrats.

However, the story is primarily about who gave how much in West Michigan. The amount given ranges between the maximum of $2,300 to $250, but no where in the story does the reporter ask what the money will be used for or if those making donations are expecting political access because of the donations. This Presidential cycle is expected to break the 2004 campaign record for money raised. Large campaign contributions dominate electoral politics so much that even the Press reporter, when referring to money donated by locals to Democratic candidates, states “Not surprisingly, Democrats came away with pocket change.” The article states that some gave $1,000 to Democratic candidates. Do you think that for most of the readers of the Grand Rapids Press that $1,000 is “pocket change?” The other omission from this story was to not provide readers with non-partisan resources to further investigate campaign financing as the 2008 Presidential race evolves. A useful non-partisan site is the one hosted by the Center for Responsive Politics, which has a detailed data-base for the 2008 Presidential candidates and the money they have raised to date.

Story:

GRAND RAPIDS — Some of West Michigan’s deepest Republican pockets — Secchia, Van Andel, Gainey, Cook — were tapped recently for the McCain presidential campaign at a breakfast featuring dry scrambled eggs.

Now, the campaign is searching for new money, the “up-and-comers.”

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., hopes to pick those pockets when he visits Grand Rapids on May 9 for two fundraisers, including one for young professionals who will be asked to give $50 to $100 each.

In West Michigan, McCain is off to a strong start, according to a Press analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was Michigan’s campaign-contribution leader in the first quarter of this year, he was a distant second to McCain in the Grand Rapids area, the analysis shows.

Seventy donors in the Grand Rapids area gave nearly $73,000 to McCain — a fourth of what the senator collected statewide, records show. He received more in this area than the other five top contenders combined.

Romney, who collected more than $925,000 across the state, got almost $21,000 from 15 contributors in the Grand Rapids area.

Not surprisingly, Democrats came away with pocket change — from eight contributors to Sen. Barack Obama, four to Sen. Hillary Clinton and three to Sen. John Edwards.

Just three people gave to Republican Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.

In all, 83 people in the Grand Rapids area gave $105,300 to the top six presidential contenders.

Philanthropist Kate Pew Wolters, chairwoman of the Steelcase Foundation board, gave $1,000 each to Clinton and Obama and wasn’t surprised few others had given to Democrats so far.

“It’s still early in the game,” Wolters said. “I still haven’t decided who I’m going to support. I decided to put my money behind the two candidates I saw as being the most favorable.”

She believes the Bush administration’s foreign policy will drive others to help the Democratic contenders — either by volunteering or with cash.

“It’s not going to be just about money,” she said. “But it helps.”

Patrick Miles Jr., who is leading Obama’s fundraising in West Michigan, said he wasn’t surprised at the slow start here.

“We’re starting from ground zero,” he said.

Obama will focus first on the Detroit area, with an event planned May 7. Miles said plans are under way to create a West Michigan fundraising committee and for an appearance here by Obama later this year.

“They’re not going to overlook Grand Rapids,” said Miles, a Grand Rapids attorney who graduated from Harvard Law School with Obama in 1991.

McCain raised most of his West Michigan money — more than $50,000 — when he attended a March 5 breakfast at the East Grand Rapids home of developer Sam Cummings, said John Helmholdt, who is helping to run McCain’s Michigan campaign.

“It was just a buffet line with scrambled eggs that tasted like they were cooked a week ago,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia, who wrote a $2,300 check.

Among the area’s big-name Republican supporters who gave to McCain:

Harvey Gainey, owner of Gainey Transportation Services, and his wife, Annie; Robert Israels, president of Israels Designs for Living, and his wife, Paulette; Charles Yob, the Republican National Committeeman; Stephen Van Andel, chairman of Alticor; Cummings, who is president of Second Story Properties; and Peter Cook, founder of the former Mazda Great Lakes, and his wife, Emajean.

Peter Cook also gave an equal amount — $2,300 — to the Romney campaign.

The family of Amway Corp. co-founder Richard DeVos, major conservative Republican donors in the past, did not give to any campaigns in the first quarter.

The McCain campaign has knocked on the DeVos doors, but nobody has answered.

“They’ve all been reached, all been called,” Helmholdt said. “They’re like a lot of other people, just still undecided and on the fence.”

The McCain campaign hopes to raise another $65,000 at two events May 9:

A $100 per person fundraiser for young professionals at McFaddens Restaurant & Saloon, 58 Ionia Ave. SW.

A $1,000 per person reception at the home of Joel and Lee Anne Langlois in Alpine Township, Helmholdt said.

“The goal is to achieve the max-out ($2,300),” Helmholdt said. “But there is a large pool of individuals who are politically active who can afford $1,000.”

Secchia said his contribution should not be seen as an endorsement. He knows and likes all the Republican candidates and likely will give to them when they come calling, he said.

“I’m not trying to cover my bases; I’m too old for that,” he said. “Politics is like charities; you might support four different charities.”

Isabelle Terry, a 43-year-old homemaker from Rockford, wasn’t invited to the breakfast. Instead, the wife of a stockbroker went online to donate $250 to Giuliani.

She was one of three from the Grand Rapids area who gave to the former mayor. She plans to keep giving to him, she said.

“I would really like to see him on the slate,” Terry said. “He’s very likable as a man. We stand together on a lot of issues.

“But he’s got a tough row to hoe.”

Analysis:

This story, which was part of a series of articles by the Grand Rapids Press, was the first that the Press has run on the war profiteer company Blackwater USA. The article is quite favorable towards the life of Blackwater founder Erik Prince, with not a single critical comment provided in the entire article. The only mention of anything that could be considered critical were the mention of lawsuits by family members of Blackwater employees who were killed in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and a book has recently come out that scrutinizes Blackwater. There are actually several books that are critical of Blackwater and the one sourced in the article does not include the name of the author, nor any of the analysis provided by the author.

The story spends a fair amount of time discussing Prince’s upbringing and his connection to the religious right, but fails to provide and critical assessment of those connections. One of those connections is Gary Bauer with the Family Research Council who acknowledges the financial contributions the Prince family has made by saying “I can say without hesitation that, without Ed and Elsa and their wonderful children, there simply would not be a Family Research Council.” However, there is no mention of what the Family Research Council does with the contributions they receive which is particularly relevant for West Michigan in that the FRC has been involved in anti-gay rights campaigns and promoted school vouchers. The other main religious connection mentioned in the story is that of Fr. Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute. Again, there is no mention of Acton Institute’s politics other than to say that Sirico and Prince “have had many conversations about the free market and faith.” A good idea of Fr. Sirico means by the free market and faith was Acton’s hosting of Fred Smith from the Competitive Enterprise Institute the past February in Grand Rapids. Smith has stated that global warming is not really a problem and both he and the Acton Institute have been recipient’s of substantial amounts of money from Exxon/Mobil for making such claims. Considering the growing influence of a company like Balckwater, how is it that the Grand Rapids Press fails to adequately scrutinize this company?

Story:

Even back in Holland Christian High School, Erik Prince did some of his best work behind the scenes.

As a senior, Prince played on the 1986 soccer team that won a state championship, but his coach remembers him for traits other than athletics.

“He was very, very intense,” recalled coach Dan Walcott.

Prince wore a Marine haircut in a decade of longer hair. He was often last to leave practice, even staying behind to pick up balls. He was quiet.

But Walcott said there was something else about Prince: “You knew if he was going to do something, he was going to go after it.”

His call to action came a decade later.

Prince, son of Holland industrialist Edgar Prince and an ex-Navy SEAL, tapped his inherited wealth in 1996 to found a little-noticed North Carolina security firm that would become Blackwater USA.

Family connections helped. As brother to former Michigan GOP chairwoman Betsy DeVos and brother-in-law to her husband, 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, Prince had access to Capitol Hill power brokers.

But his business plan did not crystallize until the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

With the U.S. decision to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, a changing military looked to the private sector to complete a variety of missions.

Blackwater was in prime position to capitalize.

Center of controversy

According to government records, Blackwater has reaped more than $800 million in federal contracts over the past five years.

With Prince at the helm, the firm stands at the center of growing controversy over the role of private security firms in times of war. Lawmakers in a Democratic Congress are pressing for aggressive oversight of firms such as Blackwater.

A recent book, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army,” has added scrutiny.

Beyond that, a pair of lawsuits allege company negligence resulted in death. One of the suits stems from the grisly mutilation and killing of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004.

Prince, 37, almost never talks to the media and declined several requests to be interviewed for this story. He is rarely photographed in public.

But in a rare e-mail interview with The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2006, he outlined his vision for the firm.

“We have a very long-term view to our work,” Prince wrote.

“We see ourselves assisting in the transformation of the (Department of Defense) into a faster, more nimble organization. The private sector has always led innovation in our country.”

Patriotic’ and conservative

One expert on the private military said Prince stands apart from the typical profile of a private security firm executive.

According to Deborah Avant, professor of political science at George Washington University, Prince and others like him are eager to prove the legitimacy of their firms’ offerings.

She knows Prince better than some of the others, since he stops by her office from time to time to chat about security issues. But other qualities set Blackwater and its founder apart.

“Blackwater is owned by one guy, who is very rich,” Avant said. “He’s very connected. He’s very tied to the Christian right.”

Avant said many of these firms send her Christmas cards, as did Blackwater last year.

“Theirs was the only one with a Nativity scene on the front,” she said.

Given his upbringing, that is not surprising.

Prince grew up in Holland, coming of age at a time of prosperity for his father’s automotive firm. Edgar Prince built Prince Corp. from scratch into Holland’s biggest employer, with 4,500 workers at eight plants, including one in Mexico.

Quietly, Edgar Prince gave millions of dollars to revitalize Holland, even as he shunned publicity.

“The whole family was like that. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” said State Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, 38, a classmate of Prince at Holland Christian.

Huizenga recalled Prince was “very patriotic” and talked of joining the military as far back as high school.

Edgar Prince and his wife, Elsa, were committed to the Republican cause and a conservative social agenda that fit the family’s Christian Reformed Church roots.

Gary Bauer, former head of the Family Research Council and a 2000 candidate for president, credited Edgar Prince with a key role in getting the council off the ground. “I can say without hesitation that, without Ed and Elsa and their wonderful children, there simply would not be a Family Research Council,” Bauer wrote.

Prince was accepted into the Naval Academy after high school but dropped out after three semesters, enrolling at Hillsdale College, long considered a bastion for conservative values.

‘Family man and a believer’

In 1992, Erik Prince and his father split politically with his sister, Betsy DeVos, who was then 5th District GOP chairwoman. They backed Pat Buchanan for president. She supported President George H.W. Bush.

As a 22-year-old senior at Hillsdale, Prince explained his decision to The Press.

“I interned with the Bush administration for six months,” he said.

“I saw a lot of things I didn’t agree with — homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind of bills. I think the administration has been indifferent to a lot of conservative concerns.”

Prince also found time in college to volunteer for the Hillsdale Fire Department.

The Rev. Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest and founder of the Grand Rapids-based Acton Institute, a conservative think tank, recalled a dinner meeting with Prince around 1990.

At that dinner, Sirico met with Dick DeVos, his parents, Rich and Helen DeVos, and Edgar and Elsa Prince. He recalled Prince joined the dinner later, coming in smelling like smoke from fighting a fire.

Sirico called Prince a “family man and a believer” who converted to Catholicism within about a year of that meeting.

Since then, Sirico has become a friend to Prince. He baptized four of his children. He also spoke at the funeral of Prince’s wife, Joan, who died of cancer in 2003.

Sirico said he and Prince have had many conversations about the free market and faith.

He said they share many views, namely “that business leaders, in light of their calling from God to be creative, have a sacred obligation to use their creativity for the good, to deal honestly with others.”

Sirico added Prince is “fundamentally a person who acts rather than talks.”

At age 19, Prince made his first political contribution: A $15,000 donation to the GOP. By 2006, his total contributions had swelled to more than $235,000 — virtually all to Republican or conservative causes.

After college, Prince re-entered the Navy in 1992 and was accepted into the SEALS, a special forces unit considered military elite.

A business is born

In March 1995, employees found Edgar Prince slumped to the floor in a company elevator. He died a short time later at Holland Community Hospital.

The company was sold the following year to Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Inc. for $1.35 billion.

Prince formed Blackwater the same year, teaming with his SEALS trainer, Al Clark, to build Blackwater. Clark has since left the company.

They named the firm for the black-colored water they found throughout the low-lying property at the North Carolina-Virginia border.

Clark and Prince shared many of the same ideas for a first-class training ground for military and police clients. Prince added the money. The firm struggled to make a profit in its first years, making much of its money from the sale of targeting systems for police or military training.

Politics and world events converged to change all that.

Time of war

The assault on the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000 prompted the military to rethink tactics and training for dealing with terrorism. The election of George W. Bush in November ushered in a new secretary of defense — Donald Rumsfeld — who was bent on remaking the armed forces, in part by expanding the use of private contractors.

The attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 meant the United States was going to war, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq.

“Osama bin Laden turned Blackwater into what it is today,” Clark told The Virginian-Pilot.

Even as its revenues mounted, Blackwater remained off the radar screen of most Americans until March 31, 2004.

That day, four Blackwater contractors became icons for a war gone wrong. They were killed as they entered Fallujah, escorting a convoy of trucks. Their bodies were burned, mutilated and strung up from a bridge by an angry mob.

Ohio resident Donna Zovko, 54, lost her son, former Army Ranger Jerry Zovko, 32, in that attack. She is among survivors suing Blackwater.

She recalled Erik Prince came to the home of her son, outside Cleveland, where she was staying at the time, to inform her of Jerry’s death.

“He wasn’t this monster or anything. It showed me he had feelings,” she said of Prince.

She remembered he sat in the dining room at least 30 minutes and talked about her son. Her husband, Joe, even thought there was a strong resemblance between Prince and their son.

But at a memorial later that year at Blackwater for the Fallujah contractors and those killed elsewhere, Zovko got a different impression of Prince. At the time of that service, Zovko pressed for answers about what had happened in Fallujah.

“Whenever we tried to ask about it, they said it was classified,” she said. “They said if we wanted to know, we would have to sue.”

“That’s why I want to go through with this (lawsuit). It needs to be shown they are not above the law.”

Analysis:

This story is interesting in that even according the the source used, the CIA World Fact Book, Cuba’s life expectancy is 11 years above the world average, yet the article tends to frame Cuba in a negative light. First, there is the headline which says “Life in Cuba long, not always good.” Once the article gets past the data it states “Most Cubans live rent-free, and food, electricity and transportation are heavily subsidized. But the island can still be a tough place to grow old. Homes that were luxurious before Castro’s 1959 revolution are now falling apart and many cramped apartments contain three generations of family members. Food, water and medicine shortages are chronic.” Here there is both negative and positive information on Cuba’s standard of living. The negatives are too many people per home and shortages of food, water and medicine. Then the article goes on to interview a 90 year old man who favors Cuba’s slow paced life because it “prizes time spent with family over careers.” So even though the headline and the framing of the story tries to paint a negative portrayal of Cuba, there is no substantial evidence that life is “not always good” in Cuba. There was one major omission from the story, the decades long US embargo on Cuba, which has limited Cuba’s ability to get certain goods, particularly medicine.

Story:

“Fidel: 80 More Years,” proclaim the good wishes still hanging on storefront and balcony banners months after Cubans celebrated their leader’s 80th birthday.

Fidel Castro may be ailing, but he’s a living example of something Cubans take pride in – an average life expectancy roughly similar to that of the United States.

They ascribe it to free medical care, mild climate, and a low-stress Caribbean lifestyle, which they believe make up for the hardships and shortages they suffer.

“Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don’t,” said Raquel Naring, a 70-year-old retired gas station attendant. “But there aren’t elderly people sleeping on the street like other places.”

Cuba’s average life expectancy is 77.08 years – second in Latin America after Puerto Rico and more than 11 years above the world average, according to the 2007 CIA World Fact Book.

It says Cuban life expectancy averages 74.85 years for men and 79.43 years for women, compared with 75.15 and 80.97 respectively for Americans. Most Cubans live rent-free, and food, electricity and transportation are heavily subsidized. But the island can still be a tough place to grow old. Homes that were luxurious before Castro’s 1959 revolution are now falling apart and many cramped apartments contain three generations of family members. Food, water and medicine shortages are chronic. But most prescription drugs and visits to the doctor are free and physicians encourage preventive care.

“There’s a family doctor on almost every block,” said Luis Tache, 90 and blind from glaucoma but still chatty and up on the news.

Tache lived in New York for six straight summers starting in 1945, paying $8 a month for a furnished apartment at 116th Street and Broadway. An English teacher, he retired 30 years ago. Sitting in a rocking chair in his breezy living room in Havana’s Playa district, Tache said Cuban communism “is both good and bad,” while the high cost of living in capitalist societies “must be very stressful.”

A relaxed lifestyle, which prizes time spent with family over careers, helps keep Cubans healthy, Tache said. “It’s bad for production, bad for the nation,” he said. “But it’s good for the people.” The government runs residence halls for seniors with no family to care for them, though space is severely limited. Community groups make sure older people look after one another.

Raul Castro, 75, took over in July after the president underwent intestinal surgery. Officials offer increasingly upbeat reports about his progress, but his condition and ailment remain state secrets.

One of Fidel Castro’s personal physicians, Dr. Eugenio Selman, in 2003 helped launch the “120 Years Club,” an organization of more than 5,000 seniors – many 100 or older – from several countries including the United States. They hope to reach the 120-year mark through healthy diet, exercise and a positive outlook.

Text from the original article ommitted from the Grand Rapids Press version:

“It’s a very happy society. There aren’t so many worries and problems and that helps,” said Alida Gil, 57, leader of a community group in Old Havana known as “Circle of Grandmothers 2000.”

Shortly after 8 a.m. every weekday, Gil leads two dozen elderly women through 40 minutes of calisthenics on the windowless, water-damaged ground floor of a state-owned building adorned with photos of Castro and his brother, Raul.

Analysis:

This article on Blackwater was based in part on the Press reporter going to the company’s facility in North Carolina, but the only person who spoke with the reporter was a neighbor who didn’t know what went on inside the Blackwater facility. This story is also framed in a very simplitic fashion and even asks the question about private companies like Blackwater “Mercenaries or necessities?” The sourced used to criticize Blackwater are Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky, who recently introduced legislation for further oversight of private military contractors. The other voice of opposition is Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, who says that the pay desparity between US military personnel and private contractors “can be quite harmful.” Having a Democrat and a Defense Secretary from the Clinton administration could give the impression that this is a partisan issue. Unfortunately there are no non-partisan voices with any critical assessment of Blackwater or Private Contractors as a whole even though there is a tremendous amount of research from groups like Corpwatch.

Like the front page story on Blackwater founder Erik Prince this story also included information on the lawsuit brought about by families of Blackwater employees who were killed in Iraq in 2004. One of the mothers is quoted several times with commentary on the status on the lawsuit. The story shifts its focus to that of whether or not private security forces should be used or not. Here the reporter relies on a Political Science professor and director of the Institute for Global and International Studies, Deborah Avant. Avant is cited in the article and has defended the use of private contractors in other public forums. Another defender of Blackwater in the article is George Washington University Law School Professor Steven Schooner. Schooner states that “When all is said and done, you can’t fight without them.” Unfortunately the article does not provide a response to such claims.

The article then shifts back to the deaths of Blackwater employees in Fallujah and has as a subheading to this section the phrase “Violence in Fallujah.” The information afterwards states that the four Blackwater employees “came under attack by insurgents who, local residents said, were waiting to assualt any foreigners whomight venture by.” The source of this information used by the Press reporter is an article in Time magazine. The story goes on to provide graphic detail of what was done to the bodies of the four contractors. Unfortunately for readers there is no background information as to why contractors or “foreigners” might be targeted in Fallujah, nor any reference to the fact that months after these attacks the US military made an example of Fallujah by bombing that Iraqi city and killing an estimated 1,000 people. This article does not do an adequate job of investigating the role that Blackwater has played in the US Occupation of Iraq, nor the legal standards which private securities can be held to during a time of war.

Story:

Just down the road from a sign that warns of gunfire and low-flying planes, James Sanderlin talked about life near Blackwater USA.

“I hear the gunfire. Sometimes, I hear small planes and helicopters,” said Sanderlin, 73, who was born and raised in this sparsely settled region of North Carolina.

He moved back nine years ago, just as Blackwater and its founder, Erik Prince, were staking their claim to a new world market.

Business has been very good.

The daily rumble of trucks past Sanderlin’s house has displaced the country quiet. The trucks ferry in hundreds of tons of fill dirt as Blackwater expands to meet the demands of a troubled world.

On 7,000 acres of reclaimed swampland near the Virginia border, the security firm has dozens of gun ranges, an urban training compound and a mock high school inspired by Columbine.

Work abroad is even more lucrative: The company has sent thousands of armed contractors to Iraq and Afghanistan and reaped more than $800 million in federal contracts in the past five years.

Like many who live here, Sanderlin has no real complaints about Blackwater.

“We do need jobs, really,” he said.

But Sanderlin would like to know more about Blackwater and its reclusive founder.

“They are very secretive. They keep a low profile,” he said.

Mercenaries or necessities?

Prince, the son of Holland industrialist Edgar Prince, presides over what is arguably the world’s largest private army.

Prince and other Blackwater officials refused several requests to be interviewed for these stories.

Blackwater has sent thousands of armed contractors to places such as Afghanistan, Iraq and even New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The firm received a $21 million no-bid contract to guard L. Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, in Iraq.

Advocates say Blackwater and other security firms have a logical place in a modern, efficient military. Blackwater, the thinking goes, can execute tough and dangerous missions, often more nimbly than the military.

Critics warn of a slippery slope toward unchecked mercenary warfare.

Among those asking questions is U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who says it is one thing to pay a contractor to do laundry or serve pizza to the troops. It’s another to send heavily armed men at $600 a day into a war zone with no clear rules of engagement.

“We have had virtually no oversight over the role of the private military or security contractors,” said Schakowsky, who has introduced a bill requiring greater oversight and accountability for private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We know virtually nothing about them, who they hire, how much it has cost and how many have died. This should be public information for people to see. These are all taxpayer dollars,” she said.

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen is concerned the disparity in pay for private contractors and that of soldiers could stir discord among troops.

“It can be quite harmful to our military when those who are serving look across the street and they can see former (troops) making four or five times more than they are.

“That can be deleterious.”

Cohen, a Republican who represented Maine in the Senate before heading the Defense Department during the Clinton administration, called the role of security contractors “very unclear and murky.”

At least 30 Blackwater contractors have died in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to media reports and an online database of contractor deaths. An Associated Press analysis found 800 civilians working under contract to the Pentagon have been killed and more than 3,300 hurt doing jobs that had been handled by the military in past wars.

Blackwater also faces a pair of lawsuits that could define the responsibility of contractors in a war zone.

The first grew from an ambush that made headlines around the world, when four Blackwater contractors were killed and mutilated in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq, in March 2004. The families sued, alleging the firm sent these men into a virtual death trap without adequate protection.

‘I blame Blackwater’

Florida resident Katy Helvenston-Wettengel, 60, lost her son, Scott, in that ambush.

“Who do I blame? I blame Blackwater. They put him in that situation, knowing they were in harm’s way,” Helvenston-Wettengel said.

Eight months later, a Blackwater plane carrying three U.S. soldiers crashed into an Afghan mountain on a day of “unrestricted visibility,” according to a weather report at takeoff. All six occupants died in the Nov. 27, 2004, crash.

The families of the soldiers sued, alleging Blackwater sent those men to their deaths in a poorly equipped and badly piloted plane.

A federal crash investigation faulted Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways and its contractor pilots for numerous safety failures and errors in judgment, including the pilots’ decisions to fly into an unfamiliar valley and to fly without oxygen above 10,000 feet.

Here to stay?

Blackwater is fighting these suits. Late last year, it hired former Whitewater special counsel Kenneth Starr to lead the appeal of the Fallujah case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Blackwater also countersued the firm that brought the Fallujah lawsuit, asking for

$10 million in damages.

Blackwater’s primary defense is that it is a virtual arm of the military and, as such, should enjoy the same immunity as the armed forces.

The outcome of those cases could dictate just how far Prince can take his dream for Blackwater.

Despite the controversy, many experts believe firms such as Blackwater are here to stay.

“They are hugely significant,” said Deborah Avant, professor of political science at George Washington University and director of the Institute for Global and International Studies. She is the author of two books on the changing military and the role of private security firms.

“People in the Army have been saying for about 10 years that they could not go to war without contractors. It’s more apparent in Iraq than in any conflict up to this time,” Avant said.

Political advantages

A 2006 report by the Government Accounting Office estimated there were 180 private security companies in Iraq with more than 48,000 employees. The Pentagon puts the number of contractors of all types at 100,000. The ratio of contractors to troops in the Persian Gulf War was 1 1/2 to 60. In Iraq, according to GAO, it’s one to three.

Avant said it is readily apparent why a strained military relies on these contractors.

“They can move quickly into an area. They have the ability to provide these specialized skill sets,” she said. “One of the pluses they often tout is that it’s politically easier.”

Another expert said the military had virtually no choice in Iraq, given troop levels going in and deteriorating ground conditions.

“Whether we like it or not, or whether the public understands it or not, the U.S. military is not currently staffed to perform the broad range of missions that the administration expects it to perform,” said Steven Schooner, an Army Reserve officer and professor at the George Washington University Law School.

“When all is said and done, you can’t fight without them.”

Into the hot zones

Several months into the invasion of Iraq, it was clear much of the territory outside Baghdad’s bunkered Green Zone could be lethal.

And with troops tied down fighting a growing insurgency, the military turned to firms such as Blackwater. Its 2003 contract to guard Bremer was an important foot in the door. Many more would follow, as the company sent hundreds of heavily armed security contractors inside Iraq and Afghanistan.

As with contractors such as Halliburton or subsidiary KBR, much of this work was done without bids and is not available for public view or congressional oversight. By 2004, Blackwater had a contract to guard food supply convoys in Anbar province, a growing center of the insurgency.

The contract was part of a huge military support operation run by KBR, in which Blackwater was hired by ESS Support Services Worldwide through a hotel company. The paper trail was so confusing lawmakers were repeatedly frustrated in their attempts to confirm it.

Violence in Fallujah

Four Blackwater contractors in two SUVs were given the assignment of escorting trucks to pick up kitchen equipment near Fallujah, which already was simmering with violence in the spring of 2004.

On March 31, Scott Helvenston, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, and three ex-Army Rangers — Wesley Batalona of Hawaii, Mike Teague of Tennessee, and Jerry Zovko of Cleveland — headed for Fallujah.

As the convoy entered the city, it slowed for traffic. The Blackwater vehicles came under attack by insurgents who, local residents said, were waiting to assault any foreigners who might venture by.

A Time magazine account said three Blackwater employees were killed in the first moments while a fourth was badly wounded and beaten to death.

The vehicles were burned by a mob, and the bodies burned and mutilated. Two of the bodies were dragged by car two miles through the streets of Fallujah and hung from an iron bridge over the Euphrates River.

Unanswered questions

In their suit against Blackwater, the families contend contractors were denied armored vehicles, heavy weapons and a third contractor they said each vehicle should have had. The suit contends that, a week before the deaths, Blackwater fired a project manager who insisted the contractors use armored vehicles. Eliminating the armored vehicles saved Blackwater $1.5 million.

Prince has not spoken publicly about Fallujah.

In court papers, Blackwater argues it cannot be held liable because it has become an irreplaceable part of the military and, as such, cannot be sued.

The Supreme Court has thus far stayed out. Chief Justice John Roberts on Oct. 24 denied Blackwater’s request to put the case on hold while it prepares further appeals. In February, the full Supreme Court declined a second appeal to take up the case.

How the lawsuits are resolved could have a sweeping effect on the future role of private contractors.

“It is an important and significant issue, whichever way it comes out,” said George Washington University Law School’s Schooner.

Florida resident Helvenston-Wettengel said money is the last thing she wants from her lawsuit against Blackwater over the Fallujah incident.

She wants answers.

Analysis:

This story is based upon the current Pentagon campaign to send US troops around the country to convince Americans that the War in Iraq is necessary. Grandville High School graduate and Marine Sgt. Paula Payne is one the the military’s PR spokespersons and is scheduled to speak at East Grand Rapids High School one week after President Bush spoke there. The story has comments from another military source, Payne’s parents and a woman who heard her speak in Pennsylvania. Payne herself is cited several times in the story. Here are her statements: “I serve because I know that freedom isn’t free,” “I know there are men and women who need to fight. We have to make sure that this war in Iraq doesn’t come back to the home front.” “People are entitled to their own opinion. If they want to believe it’s propaganda, they can do that. But this is my story,” “People are dying. But I think we are making progress. If we don’t finish the job now, we will be back in 10 years. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children over there.” After reading such statements do you feel that Sgt. Payne provided adequate justifications for the US War in Iraq?

The story also begins with the idea that the Pentagon is merely “selling the war” or that this is “simply smart public relations.” The irony of this story is that it appeared on the front page of the Grand Rapids Press. On Page three there was a story about how the military lied to build heroic legends around Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch. For the Grand Rapids Press not to question the integrity of Sgt. Payne’s role in the “war for public opinion” is pretty amazing. We have cited other examples of military propaganda during the war in Iraq that gets reported as news. We have documented the military’s creation of their own Video News Releases(VNRs) and that the US military was caught paying for stories to be sent out of Iraq. Numerous groups have been documenting the role that public relations and the public relations industry has played in the current US Occupation of Iraq. The Grand Rapids Press reporter failed to provide a counter-voice in this story or at a minimum provide some context to why the Pentagon feels it is necessary to “win the war of public opinion.”

Story:

As America grows weary of the war in Iraq, the Pentagon is summoning troops such as Marine Sgt. Paula Payne to a new front.

Call it the selling of the war — or simply smart public relations — but Payne is proud to hit the road across America to give her view of military service and the war.

“I serve because I know that freedom isn’t free,” said Payne, 23, a 2003 graduate of Grandville High School.

“I know there are men and women who need to fight. We have to make sure that this war in Iraq doesn’t come back to the home front.”

The initiative comes at a critical juncture, as President Bush demands funds to continue the war and Congress tries to impose deadlines for withdrawal of U.S. troops. Bush made his case for the war last week in stops in Ohio and in an appearance Friday at East Grand Rapids High School.

Payne is one of eight service members with experience in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa tapped for what the military calls Why We Serve.

Participants are attached to the Pentagon public affairs department for about 90 days and dispatched across the country to convey their personal stories of service.

“We’re sending the best of the best from each of the services,” said Maj. Ann Biggers, the program’s director.

Payne said she understands if war critics are skeptical of her mission.

“People are entitled to their own opinion. If they want to believe it’s propaganda, they can do that. But this is my story.

“Nobody is standing behind me with a knife, saying, ‘support the war.’ “

Payne has served in Iraq twice, from September 2004 to March 2005 and from February 2006 to January.

In her last tour, Payne was assigned duty at military checkpoints near the border with Syria. Called Operation Lioness, it was part of a strategy to place female troops at checkpoints to ease cultural concerns about having male soldiers frisking Iraqi females.

Pennsylvania resident Virginia Lisbon, 62, heard Payne speak late last month in an appearance at a state conference of the American Legion Auxiliary. Lisbon was impressed.

“I didn’t feel it was propaganda at all,” Lisbon said. “You only hear the bad things on the news. She was just talking to us. She wasn’t preaching to us. She was really great.”

Payne is the daughter of missionaries Dan and Sally Payne. She decided during high school to investigate the military as a means to pay for college. She eventually settled on the Marines.

Payne’s mother, a Wyoming resident, said she is “unbelievably proud” of her daughter.

“I think what she is doing is wonderful and absolutely necessary,” she said. “But I think it is appalling that it is necessary because there are people in this nation that are treating the troops so badly.

“It is sad that the military has to come to the point to say, ‘Look, these people are protecting the nation against the terrorists.’ “

In addition to the Pennsylvania trip, Payne has appeared before youth groups, elementary students and a nonprofit organization in North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. She is scheduled next month to speak in Missouri, Texas, Tennessee and southeastern Michigan.

Her basic message: Things are tough, but now is hardly the time to quit.

“There are horrible things going on over there,” Payne said. “People are dying. But I think we are making progress. If we don’t finish the job now, we will be back in 10 years.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children over there.”

Analysis:

This article was on the front page of the Grand Rapids Press for their “Earth Day” edition of the newspaper. The Press “presented 14 West Michigan state legislators with a “How Green Are You?” questionnaire to mark today’s observance of Earth Day. What we asked them, why it matters and what they had to say.” You can read the questions and the legislator responses online, but note that all of the questions had to do with personal behavior – kind of car you drive, do you compost, recycle, use mass transit and environmental groups they belong to.

The story provides readers with some of the reactions from 2 of the 14 legislators who responded to the survey. There are also comments from 3 non-legislators, De Steketee with the Center for Sustainability at Aquinas College, Bill Stough with Sustainable Research Group, and Rachel Hood with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council. Each of these three “environmental spokespersons” focused on the survey results and the personal behaviors of these 14 legislators. What is omitted from the story and would seem more relevant to readers and the public is what are the voting records of these state legislators? Other questions to consider would be who gives them money during re-election and which industry groups lobby them, particularly which ones that are notorious polluters? Ask yourself if how legislators vote or their personal choices make more of an impact on residents of Michigan?

Story:

State Rep. Dave Hildenbrand drives a Jeep Cherokee sports utility vehicle and uses herbicides to kill the crabgrass that infests the lawn at his 8-acre homestead.

The Lowell Township Republican doesn’t pay his trash hauler extra to collect his recyclables. Instead, he hauls recycled paper, cans and bottles to a Kent County transfer station near Rockford “a few times a year.”

Hildenbrand gave himself an “8” when asked to rate himself on a “green” scale of 1-10.

He was among 14 West Michigan state legislators who replied to a How Green Are You? questionnaire to mark today’s observance of Earth Day.

“Like any family, I think we can do a better job of being more diligent,” said Hildenbrand, who said he would consider replacing his SUV with a hybrid.

“Too often, if you’re an elected Republican, some will label you as not pro-environment. That’s certainly not the case with me,” said Hildenbrand, who belongs to a national group called Republicans for Environmental Protection.

Most of the legislators surveyed by The Press ranked themselves above average. Most recycle their trash, some compost and all say they buy locally grown fruits and vegetables whenever possible.

None have enrolled in Consumers Energy’s Green Generation program which charges its customers extra for power generated by Michigan-based renewable energy sources.

State Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck, gave herself a 7 or 8.

“It’s always there in the back of my mind,” said Birkholz, who chairs the Senate’s Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee. That’s why she composts leaves and uses eco-friendly cleaning products around the house.

As for the four-wheel-drive GMC Envoy in her driveway, “I live in the middle of the snowbelt,” she said.

‘We can set the bar higher’

State Rep. Arlan Meekhof, R-Olive Township, gave himself a “5.” Yet, his answers differed little from Hildenbrand and other legislators.

“Maybe I’m a little harder on myself than others because I’m in a district that relies heavily on tourism and agriculture,” said Meekhof, who sits on the House’s Great Lakes and Environmental Committee.

Deb Steketee, director of the Center for Sustainability at Aquinas College, said the self-ranking may indicate how aware the legislators are of environmental issues rather than their actual ranking in their overall community.

“Very few people wake up in the morning and think, ‘What can I do to destroy the environment?'” said Steketee, whose office promotes “sustainable” methods that lessen the “footprint” individuals leave on the environment. “But we can set the bar higher for ourselves.”

Environmental consultant Bill Stough, chief executive of the Sustainable Research Group, said he doesn’t see much leadership in the survey responses.

“They weren’t radical on one extreme or the other,” said Stough, whose company advises West Michigan businesses, local governments and nonprofit groups on sustainable methods.

“I think they are a perfect mirror image of our society right now,” he said. “I think if you took 12 people off the street and asked them the same questions, they’d come up with similar answers.”

Stough said environmentalists want to see more leadership from politicians because they can create incentives and new markets for sustainable products.

“I guess the learning moment I carry away from the survey is that we’ve got to get everyone of those legislators to understand the serious nature of the issues we’re dealing with,” he said.

The trick question

Shown the responses, Rachel Hood, executive director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, said she would not rank the legislators as highly as they did themselves.

“I would say this group is a little above average,” she said. “I think it’s fair to say every person who lives in America can do more.”

Hood said she regards the survey’s “Paper or Plastic?” query as a trick question. While paper bags are biodegradable, they are more costly to produce than plastic. “All of their answers should have been, ‘I keep a canvas bag in my car to bring my groceries home.’ ”

Yet, Hood admits that it took her a long time to get into the habit of carrying her own bag into the grocery store.

“I don’t think these folks are much different than the general population,” she said. “We are all responsible for making better choices.”

Analysis:

What do you think the Press means by “Peaceful protests?” and why is that the language used for the headline and not why people were protesting? This article is based upon comments from people who either participated in or witnessed the protests organized on April 20 in respond to Bush speaking in East Grand Rapids. There is mention that two separate demonstrations were organized, but no mention of the groups involved or comments from those that organized the protests, even though one of the groups ACTIVATE was handing out flyers with reasons why they were against the war. The only sources cited are 2 women who came to the East GR protest, but neither of those comments give reasons for being opposed to the war in Iraq. Two other women are cited in the story, both of whom commented on the list of dead Iraqis that were on signs at the protest in downtown Grand Rapids. The only real reference to the East Grand Rapids protest had to do with which streets people gathered at and this sentence “Gaslight Village took on a carnival atmosphere as protesters drummed out anti-war chants and slogans.” What does the Press mean by “carnival atmosphere?”

Story:

AnneMarie Bessette didn’t come to shop when she took her 15-year-old daughter, Coralie, to Gaslight Village.

Mother and daughter were there to join nearly 1,000 protesters who roamed the business district Friday, waving signs and shouting anti-war chants while President Bush delivered a speech half a block away at East Grand Rapids High School.

“I’m trying to educate my children and help them understand international affairs,” Bessette said. “I’m trying to help them understand what’s happening in our country, and especially the war in Iraq.”

It was one of two separate protests held during Bush’s brief visit to the Grand Rapids area. A smaller group of about 60 voiced their opposition to Bush and the war in Iraq at South Division Avenue and Fulton Street.

Prior to Bush’s arrival at the high school, most of the protesters lined the east side of Lakeside Drive SE in the belief the president’s motorcade would pass them. When the motorcade arrived from the other direction at 1 p.m., they streamed west along Wealthy Street SE and posted themselves at the intersection of Bagley Avenue SE.

Gaslight Village took on a carnival atmosphere as protesters drummed out anti-war chants and slogans.

Irene Bach, 83, basked in the sun and watched from a lawn chair that she and her husband, Sol, brought from their home on Breton Road.

“I guess I’m opposed to war, period,” she said. “I’m very much for peace.”

During the protest in downtown Grand Rapids, Amy Hamb, 38, of Rockford, stared at a 250-foot banner that carried the names and dates of death of more than 3,000 Americans killed during the war.

“Those are the dead?” whispered Hamb as she stood at a nearby bus stop. “I didn’t realize. You hear about one or two West Michigan deaths, but those are the number dead from this war. I never got that,” she said.

Plenty of cars beeped in recognition of the signs instructing “Honk if you want peace.”

The handmade messages even included a nod to former President Reagan’s words about the Berlin Wall: “Mr. President, tear down this war.”

Donna Harris left her downtown residence to see the crowd gathering on the corner. She walked past the signs and moved in closer to examine the banner listing the names of the U.S. war dead. A furrow creased her brow.

“Oh my God, there are 43-year-old women on here. This really makes you face our dead,” Harris said. “When I was younger, you used to be able to tell the president something and he would listen. That is not happening,” said the 64-year-old woman, who described herself as an artist.

Analysis:

This story is a “summary” of the speech that President Bush gave in East Grand Rapids. The story cites primarily President Bush, but also has comments from Congressman Hoekstra and Lt. General Robert Gard, who is sourced as a critic of the President’s policy. The story begins with a reference to the 2003 speech that Bush gave in Grand Rapids, but the reference made by the reporter has more to do with the audience than what Bush said. No where does the story mention that many of the claims made by Bush in 2003 have since been found to be false.

In regards to the April 20 speech, Bush is cited making numerous claims – “a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops will lead to bloody chaos across the Middle East,” “Iraqi and American forces are making incremental gains in Baghdad,” “U.S. efforts in Anbar province are beginning to convince Sunnis to resist the efforts of al-Quadi insurgents,” and that “Withdrawal would do nothing to prevent al-Qaida from using Iraq as a base to overthrow other moderate countries.” However, none of the claims made by the President are substantiated or investigated by the Press. The only critic that was cited is retired General Robert Gard, but the only comment attributed to Gard was “There is no military solution to the insurgency.” Again, this claim was not substantiated or verified by the Press. The Press reporter also said at one point that Bush “tries to face down rising doubts about the war and a Democratic Congress pressing for troop withdrawal.” Is it true that the Democratic Congress is pressing for troop withdrawal? The Press offers no information to substantiate such a claim.

Story:

The contrast between the two speeches could not be more striking.

President Bush roused a partisan crowd in Grand Rapids on the eve of war in 2003, drawing several standing ovations as he made the case for invasion. He spoke in January of that year at DeVos Performance Hall, a day after making his State of the Union speech.

He spoke again of war Friday, this time before a less partisan crowd at East Grand Rapids High School.

And it was a much more sober and serious Bush who spoke to an audience of about 500 assembled by the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan.

But it clearly was a message aimed for a broader audience, as Bush laid out in detail the tactics behind the “surge” of added troops he asserts will turn things around in Iraq after more than four years of war.

He delivered what amounted to a significant policy speech as he tries to face down rising doubts about the war and a Democratic Congress pressing for troop withdrawal.

Critics cite recent bombings across Iraq — killing more than 230 in just one day this week — as evidence the strategy is failing.

Bush said it will work, given time. And he repeated past warnings that a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops will lead to bloody chaos across the Middle East.

“It’s natural to wish there was an easy way out — that we could just pack up and bring our troops home and be safe,” Bush said. “Yet in Iraq, the easy road would be a disaster.”

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, arrived on Air Force One with Bush, along with U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids.

Hoekstra called it a “major policy speech,” contrasting it with a speech Bush gave Thursday in Ohio.

“He was very serious today on the plane,” the congressman said Friday. “Today, he wanted to be very clear. He has not gone into this kind of detail since the surge efforts began.”

In his speech of about 40 minutes, Bush explained the strategy behind his decision to add more than 20,000 combat troops to Iraq, the bulk of them in Baghdad.

“The nature of a strategy aimed at securing the population is that the most important gains are often the least dramatic. Day by day, block by block, Iraqi and American forces are making incremental gains in Baghdad,” Bush said.

Referring to a projected image of Baghdad, Bush noted U.S. troops now are stationed at more than two dozen security stations throughout the city. Troops live and work beside the Iraqi troops, he said, in contrast to past operations where they retreated to bases at night.

Bush asserted that U.S. efforts in Anbar province are beginning to convince Sunnis to resist the efforts of al-Quadi insurgents.

Critics of Bush’s strategy see little or no hope it will work.

Lt. General Robert Gard called the surge strategy “too little” and “too late,” maintaining the majority of Iraqis have hardened against the presence of U.S. troops.

In comments from a conference call arranged by the Democratic National Committee, Gard called for a phased troop withdrawal.

“There is no military solution to the insurgency,” said Gard, who retired from the U.S. Army in 1981 after 31 years of service.

But in his speech, Bush warned of the consequences of withdrawal, saying it would embolden the extremists.

“Withdrawal would do nothing to prevent al-Qaida from using Iraq as a base to overthrow other moderate countries,” he said.

Analysis:

This story is based upon the response of those who were permitted to attend the Bush speech on April 20 in East Grand Rapids. There are eight different people who were cited other than Bush. Most of the sources cited supported President Bush and his plan to increase US troop presence in Iraq. There were a few people who “had concerns,” but only one person who was cited was clearly opposed to the Bush plan but non of her reasons were cited. The article did say that she was disappointed that the President didn’t really respond to her question, which was whether or not the recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton Commission would be part of the strategy. The story did not provide any context or explanation of what the Baker-Hamilton Commission recommended.

Those who spoke positively of the President’s comments used terms and statements like the President is “listening better,” “he is firmly committed to supporting the troops,” “that leaving Iraq too soon would create a base for al-Qaida,” ‘We can’t pull out. We’ve got to give Iraq time to be self-governing,” “The reality is we’re there now, and we have to work our way through it,” and “he has a deep, deep mastery of the subject matter.” The Press reporter does not ask follow up questions to the people who made such claims, claims which are quite remarkable. How does someone know the President is listening better? What do people base the claim that the US must stay or that leaving would create a base for al Qaida? Also, why is it that when the President or anyone else says they support the troops that this equates to supporting the continuation of the US occupation? The Press article basically just reported what people said, but did not verify any of the claims made. One other observation is that of those sourced in the story, 4 are politicians, one was a University President, 1 CEO, and 2 were identified as members of the World Affairs Council. Does this constitute a broad representation of those in attendance?

Story:

Whether they agreed with him or not, several audience members who heard President Bush lay out his rationale for continuing his Iraq war policy Friday said he made a compelling case.

“I heard a statement of staying the course, that he is firmly committed to supporting the troops, which is important from where I am with three of my children in the service right now,” said Grand Valley State University President Thomas Haas, a former Coast Guard officer.

“I would have liked to have heard more about a longer-term vision. He was really quite good about talking about the tactics, the operations going on right now. What I would like to have heard was, ‘OK, what about the next steps after that?’ “

The crowd of 500 or so in the East Grand Rapids High School Performing Arts Center listened intently, interrupting the president only a few times with applause. Each time, Bush raised his hand to restrain them.

“This is a sober forum,” he said at one point, then added, “or a forum of sober people, I hope.”

Those who already supported his war policy generally were pleased. Those who opposed it were disappointed.

Lynda Hoving, of Grand Rapids, was among the latter. After Bush’s speech, she asked if he intended to follow the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Commission and use more diplomacy to resolve the conflict. To scattered applause, Bush noted the commission said it might be necessary to increase troop levels, “and that’s what I did.”

“I was disappointed in his answer,” said Hoving, a member of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan, which hosted the address. “I still think the attitude he has is more confrontational. He didn’t seem inclined or open to drawing people into the conversation.”

Others said they agreed with the president that leaving Iraq too soon would create a base for al-Qaida to mount future attacks. Some said that, while Bush made a strong case for continuing the troop surge, they still disagreed with him.

World Affairs Council board member Michael Hampton said he sensed Bush is more open to other opinions on the war.

“I’m convinced he’s listening better,” he said. “I think he made a good enough case that says, ‘We can’t pull out. We’ve got to give Iraq time to be self-governing.'”

Fred Keller, CEO of Cascade Engineering, said he had hoped the president would outline a change in direction, such as setting benchmarks for Iraqi forces to assume moe responsibility.

“I was anticipating it was going to be more of a shift in policy than a straight line,” he said. “We’re in Iraq, and we’ve got to find some effective way to extricate ourselves.”

U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, who arrived with Bush aboard Air Force One, said he urged the president to take questions from the audience. “I told him, ‘Be sure to save questions, because that’s when you’re at your best,'” Ehlers said. “He was speaking from the heart.”

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra called the address “a wonderful opportunity for West Michigan.”

“We didn’t get into why Grand Rapids,” said the Holland Republican, who also arrived on Air Force One. “How often do you have the president speaking for an hour and a half and answering questions? Because most people see the president in sound bites.”

“I think they can see the president has a deep understanding of the issues,” Hoekstra said. “You may or may not agree with the strategies and the tactics he has employed, but he has a deep, deep mastery of the subject matter.”

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell said he still favors removing troops from Iraq, but he was impressed at how Bush “made a compelling case for his plan.”

Heartwell — who did not applaud at points when others did — said the president struck a chord when he spoke about spreading democracy almost on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.

“The idea of democracy through the grassroots is an interesting one,” Heartwell said. “I’ve always been a firm believer in working at a neighborhood level. That’s what we’ve tried to do here in Grand Rapids.”

Another area mayor, Rob VerHeulen of Walker, said he was impressed with the complexity of the situation in Iraq, as described by Bush.

“I think my sense is things have not gone as well as the president had hoped,” VerHeulen said. “The reality is we’re there now, and we have to work our way through it.”