Renee Bamford
Staff Writer

As a ULV Communications Department alumnus and Iraq War veteran, Robert Parry shared the experiences of his military service in Iraq and his views on the media’s participation during a discussion Monday in Founders Auditorium.

With almost 50 students and faculty members in attendance, Parry shared photos he took while in Iraq and spoke of his personal views on the war as well as the media and its coverage. The discussion was sponsored in part by the University of La Verne chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“The war in Iraq may be the most controversial foreign policy in my lifetime,” Parry said, “and it could be the most ever.”

His motivation for the presentation was to inform the audience of the truth about what occurred in Iraq. He also discussed how the media’s coverage was at most selective and notably partial. Parry noticed many opportunities for the media to see first hand what he saw while on duty.

“A journalist’s job is to get the truth,” Parry said. “I don’t accept the argument that it is too dangerous to get the job done.”

Parry expressed that the most difficult task to overcome was the cultural barrier between the United States and Iraq. The current task for the soldiers is the establishment of an Iraqi government. Parry said that success will be something we may not recognize.

“The Iraqi people have gone from being chained and tortured figuratively while in some cases literally, to being given a bicycle we call democracy, along with a set of training wheels we call the military,” Parry said. “At some point the training wheels must be taken off and when they come off it is up to them whether or not they fall off.”

Parry was given the opportunity as a communications major to experience what the war in Iraq is like and set the record straight for the media, providing both the good and the bad of what is really happening with the troops over seas.

“It was really interesting seeing an insider’s perspective on the war,” Triana Reyes, freshman journalism major, said. “He was able to show us things that the media either didn’t have the ability to do so, or merely left out for one reason or another.”

During Parry’s tour of duty his battalion suffered 17 casualties and several soldiers were wounded. Parry was faced with the likelihood that he could be added to the number of casualties.

“The political climate of our country is to leave the war, at first chance possible, whether or not things have been finished,” Parry said. “I fear that if this happens the casualties may have lost their life for no reason.”

Parry graduated from the ULV in 1999 and served a one-year tour as an infantry officer in Iraq.

He is a senior account manager for Pollack PR Marketing Group and after returning from Baghdad wrote an article about the war that has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Salt Lake City Tribune and Stamford Advocate in Connecticut.

“Being that the nature of the presentation focuses on the war and the media it was inevitable that the focus was more about the war and what his story was compared to what we know through media coverage,” said John Patrick, SPJ chapter president. “His perspective appeared to be a little more real and optimistic with an added grit of war.”

Renee Bamford can be reached at belle_renee@ yahoo.com.