There were (once) the "embedded"

(To Frank Montana)
21/02/17

According to Aldous Huxley there are three types of intelligence: human intelligence, animal intelligence, and military intelligence. But for a few years there is a fourth: intelligence embedded.

- embedded are journalists specializing in particular subjects, who follow the military in their missions in operating theaters and in the exercises. They are following them. They travel, live and eat with them. They are not parasites, but observers with highly specialized analytical and journalistic skills.

- embedded they do not perceive a penny by the armed forces. Their function is to write, produce videos, reportage and conferences on the complex world of military activities. By doing so the public can understand how the money spent on defense is spent, it will know how our military is highly regarded by other nations for preparation and capacity. Citizens will have more reliable and detailed information, as they will be able to rely on multiple sources.

All this happens only by making a journalist fly aboard a military transport plane, sitting with his back to the fuselage and in front of a pallet of material destined for the operating theater. Once he reaches his destination he will sleep on a camp bed and eat at the canteen with everyone else.

- embedded they play a key role in communication and information, whether all FFAAs in the most advanced countries, the United States in the first place, treat them very well and consider them very much.

So who are the "embedded"?

L'embedded He is generally a journalist, but he may also be a documentary director. They are information professionals who specialize in one or two themes, ranging from military issues to geopolitics, from sociology to medicine. The embedded are prepared for military life in crisis areas by attending special courses organized by the FFAA in concert with other organizations and associations, such as the FNSI (National Federation of Italian Press).

In substance, every year a handful of journalists, men and women, took part in a two-week time frame in theoretical and practical lessons on military activities and crisis areas. At the end they receive the "qualification" embedded (ie accrediting at FFAAs to be able to follow missions in areas of peace or crisis).

But why this strange course and especially why only recently?

Times change! If journalists could once get to the front with ease, as it was enough to stay from the "right side" and approach as close as possible to the front line, now with asymmetric warfare is no longer possible. The days of Parise, Malaparte, Hemingway, Fallaci, Montanelli have ended. By now the crisis areas are in the blink of a leopard, and the same formations that face it move quickly. This means that the scenario is extremely fluid and fluid. The conflicts are dusty, the old schemes that saw two opposing opponents are just a vague memory: now the conflicts are multiethnic and on perhaps multifaceted areas.

Just as a result of this, the correspondents of war, for some time now, are paying a price disproportionate in terms of human lives and at the same time the disinformation and information of part, often conveyed by information centers directly managed by the counterpart, are making the understanding of the events very difficult and incomplete.. Since then, journalists have been following the Armed Forces (albeit independently) to see what they are doing. But it is equally true that journalists have always been unwanted breakers and especially the unruly. Here's what Sir Garnet Wolseley said: "These figurines now invented in the appendix to the armies, who eat the soldiers rations and do not even know what the work is"It's a difficult life, then, to make the journalist: it was the 1869!

Precisely for this there are the courses. Very good idea and above all concrete.

The civilian vision of the embedded

Many are inclined to think that embedded may have a distorted view of reality and facts, as they are strongly conditioned by the presence of the military. Maybe it's a preconceived idea, certainly not quite clear. If good information in the civil field is a tough business, in the military field it becomes a crazy business. Napoleon had learned how the armies needed to have contact with the press and public opinion: "Public opinion is an invisible, mysterious power, to which nothing resists. Nothing is more mobile, more vague and stronger; and although it is capricious, it remains true, reasonable, just, much more often than one thinkspragmatically the philosophy of the formation of the embedded aims at the need for Italian citizenship to know what its military do. And who better than journalists are able to transfer to the general public all the notions, how to work, all the successes and even the degree of difficulty that the military has during their work without attending the various theaters of operations? In addition, the journalist can learn better how the military world works and thus be able to better explain it to the reader. The course serves to train to see what might happen and to perceive the risk of running in theater operations.

The military logic

The FFAAs need to have contact with the press to get to know and inform the citizens. However, FFAAs need the press to address who they owe by following the right lines. Political information, for example, the journalist should not ask the FFAA, but the Ministry. FFAAs can respond to everything that concerns the operational part. Many civil journalists struggle to understand it. Going on a mission is not like going to do a journalistic service at Piazza Navona in downtown Rome. If the journalist is following a patrol and begins a clash, he needs to know how to protect himself, what to do, how to disengage, and above all, not to interfere with the military that needs to react quickly or backfire. If the journalist is formed as embedded these things can do her very well. A training course is very intense and tiring, especially in its practical applications with the various Armed Forces (Navy, Army, Air Force and Carabinieri) but the most important thing remains the concepts previously expressed.

Journalists always remember the famous words of Winston Churchill: "In times of war the truth is so precious that it must be protected with a curtain of lies."Precisely for this reason the course to train theembedded is based on maximum transparency. The intent is to overturn this strongly rooted idea that civil information operators have of military transparency, so that they can then carry out their work with the right balance and serenity.

Hyper-technological operations and poor journalists in the barrel

The world has changed, but above all the operations in which our FFAAs are involved are more and more hyper-technological and this inexorably cuts off the common journalist from the theater of operations. We risk remaining on the margins and not really having the opportunity to observe things and above all, the end, to describe reality.

Have you ever wondered how much a headline would send a journalist to follow some dramatic events? A lot. If it is a . will never go out of the way, seen and considered the costs. The journalist needs a mountain of money: he has to pay the life insurance, the car, the interpreter, the producer, to stare, bodyguard and accommodation for all. If you want to go around alone, however, it faces stratospheric costs: a cab or car hire costs madness in operating theaters. All this inexorably closes the door to the little ones and to the ., but not to the big heads. So, farewell to pluralism.

Much worse than the ones embedded, which coupled to the FFAA can reduce costs and make a very important contribution to the pluralism of information. A small news agency - which does not mean it is less serious and less reliable than a large one - can compete on a par with a giant like Reuters. This is democracy, until proven otherwise.

Today, news, for many, unfortunately, are merely merchandise, and too many big heads are attracted by free market logic and budgets: news follows the fashion. Small ones are the ones that provide more linear and specialized information. An excellent article written on the social framework of Afghanistan and placed on the net is in fact an ephemeral (eternal proof of the day or history): as it is possible, thanks to the web, to replicate it even after years of the event and read it quietly . All this for the benefit of scholars and readers. That is why it is crucial that the military approach to the press is geared to the involvement of the embedded.

Bismarck's experience

Maybe not everyone knows that Iron Chancellor Bismarck read the mistakes of others to plan the future of Prussia: "Libraries are full of books written by people who have made their experiences before me. Why do I have to risk and waste time doing the experience when just reading a book?"

The military, therefore, use the writings of the embedded, even with the various criticisms, to improve or to understand what different eyes they have found on the field. It is an important and valuable value for J2 structures as well. The embedded they are highly skilled workers who move to another location to do their job better. They take advantage of the means and staff available who, with seriousness and competence, guarantees their mobility wherever possible. And here we must open a parenthesis: it is common thought among the civil journalists that the military bring the embedded where they want them. It is true, but only because in other places the situation is so unstable and dangerous that even they, who are armed and prepared for this type of threat, realize that you are likely to never return home. Military leaders always want to win the wars and bring all their soldiers home. Why is this not logical and right? Why do so many stubbornly look at these people with suspicion?

How much is it worth and makes an embedded?

How much can it be in return for a embedded who at the end of a ten-day mission writes a series of articles and may indirectly provide precious information to the J2 with innovative reading keys? It can not of course be quantified in the immediate, but reasoning on a large scale, so on national interests, is certainly an important item. Of course there are more or less good reporters. There are more predisposed, true natural talents, and others that are good though not as well-behaved. Of course, for both categories, it is about information professionals who, when they go to the mission, know perfectly well that they do not go out and risk life like the soldiers who are with them.

Do the FFAA censor the embedded?

I'm talking about personal experience and based on experiences made by friends and embedded colleagues: no! They do not censor anything, because, I repeat, it does not fit in their interests. In addition, the roles are clear and defined so there are no doubts and misunderstandings.

Too bad that in recent years the possibility of following the Italian armed forces from embedded has been, if not reset, "very small". As a military costume, we do not want to sympathize with precise political choices here ...

(Photo: Defense Online / web)