American Media Of Iraqi Civilians example essay topic

Media in modern day affects the public indirectly in more ways than almost anything else. It makes up our opinions for us, and modifies our thoughts and feelings for a lot of big issues including that of the Iraq war. Usually we are affected mostly by the media in the county in which we live in but also by the media of other countries. Media affects the public not only during times of peace but also during times of war. During times of war the media is the most important for the war faring countries both in an attempt at crippling the enemy spirits and to boost the morals of your own troops. This in turn leads to the propaganda warfare fought at the side of the actual physical fighting.

The mass media which in most countries is controlled either indirectly or directly by the government, in Iraq for instance the media is controlled directly by the dictatorship under Saddam Hussein's regime, while in the U.S.A. the media is controlled by wealthy Americans who in one way or another are connected to the American government, so if a few newspapers have the same owner this leads to these newspapers only showing the one owners view, and if it is for the U.S.A. then of course it will be a pro-US paper, as well as all the reporters, for example NBC fired a journalist after giving an interview to an Iraqi run TV stating that the US war plan was failing, thus proving the view of NBC. The US led Iraq war is one such war where civilians encountered a lot of misrepresented facts from both governments. Both the American and the Iraqi media misrepresented events in Iraq in order to gain public support for their actions. The main contradictable event between the American media and the Iraqi media has to do with before the war was started. Before the war was started the main question was whether or not Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, heated discussions took place and UN weapons inspectors arrived and inspected and found nothing, which the Bush administration disapproved of. The question of whether or not Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction caused propaganda from one side or another either it was Iraq that was lying and stating they had no weapons of mass destruction or it was American who was lying when stating they had weapons of mass destruction.

Either way each country was holding its stance at what it had stated and not giving up to the other country to prove that it was strong to the people. The propaganda war continued with American troops deploying in Kuwait and the Iraq region showing their force and determination to the Iraqi people as well as the Americans. The Bush administration then gave Saddam Hussein and his regime a time limit of 48 hours in which they would have to surrender if Iraq was to be left untouched by the Americans thus increasing the threat on the Iraqi's from the Americans and bringing together the American people, to stand up for their case, causing them to stand strong together. The negative affects of the pre-war propaganda was that lots of people were misled by the media into believing false statements and there by supporting their government for the wrong cause during the war. The pre-war propaganda led to much discussion and many accusations among many countries as well as to a growing gap between the NATO as well as the UN countries.

During the opening hours of the Iraq war a very crucial strike for the American led propaganda was carried through. This crucial strike was when the American's sent cruise missiles and bunker busters into Baghdad to strike a building in which Saddam Hussein and his sons were supposedly supposed to have been in. This led to the belief of many Americans that Saddam Hussein was dead as well as one of his sons. The American media corresponds to this stating that Saddam Hussein is believed dead while the Iraqi media responds to this as false information and the next morning shows a meeting in which Saddam Hussein and his sons take part.

The American media raised the spirits of the American troops leading them to believe that the war would be short and easily won with few casualties. The Iraqi media caused the American's to appear as propagandists and raising their troops morals to such ensuring that their nation is strong and that it can with hold strong American attacks and that they should do their part in the fighting for their country. This same type of event occurred twice during the Iraq war, first on March 20 or day 1, and also on April 7 or day 19 of the war. This led to the misbelieve of the American governments statements within the American people and led to the events being questioned to whether or not they were true since the same type of event happening twice with the same affect is not very likely to happen.

For the Iraqi people this led them to believe that the Americans were lying and that Saddam was alive and so were his sons, and that the Iraqi defense was thriving. Once again propaganda seemed to be used by at least one side since the two were stating different things about the same event, but it was most definitely effective and fulfilled its purpose. After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime there were pictures shown in the American media of Iraqi civilians cheering for the Americans and pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein. As described in one article "Jubilant crowds greet U.S. troops [which] go on a looting rampage and topple a 40-foot statue of Hussein". This issue has not so much to do with whether or not this really occurred but if the civilians really were as jubilant as shown in the video footage, if this was cheering of their own will or if it came from bribes from the Americans. Nevertheless how it was led to the relief and happiness that the war was finally coming to an end and that Saddam Hussein's regime had fallen once and for all, thus giving the Americans payoff for their support and actions, in physical proof and not just in words.

This brought together the divided groups of nations for and against the war making the group of nations against the war a little more forgiving toward the leading countries actions before and during the war. This victory led to the future trust of the Bush administration by both foreign countries and from the voters possibly ensuring George W. Bush's second term as president, due to his rising approval ratings according to Gallup Polls. Although this seemed to be then end of Saddam Hussein's regime the Americans still needed to find Saddam Hussein since this was one of their main goals as well as finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to prove that the war really was a success in their point of view. These videos are not only very contradictable to their reliability but also to whether they were just glad that Saddam Hussein's regime was over thrown or if this was the case and that the US troops were in their, and whether this was just a fraction of the Iraqi people who were happy while the rest were quietly mourning the fall of their government. This causes this event to be very questionable to its authenticity and reliability. Iraqi media as well as the American media showed that they agreed on one event which includes the killing of civilians this was something that not occurred once but over and over again.

This was as an attempt to build up the hate against the US although this might not have been misrepresented information the effect given off as a cause of this was probably the most effective of the Iraqi propaganda and served its purpose well and beyond. The planned effect of this action was not only to make the Iraqi public mad at the US but also to make the people of other surrounding Arab countries mad, this was achieved as Syria started to stand up more and more for their cause as a country against the US, whether or not this was due to this event is unsure but it must have helped in some way. Another effect this even had was that even the public in the US started to grow skeptical to the war because of the mass civilian casualties which possibly could have been blown up, just like the Americans probably increased the Iraqi military casualties in their reports, by adding another zero to make more affective. This was reported mostly by the Iraqi media but some cases of civilian casualties were also reported by the American media, but these were mostly cases when the American troops were protecting themselves, or so they said. When asked about the civilian casualties Gen. Tommy Franks replied "We don't do body counts", this a quite blunt statement trying to hide the civilian casualties of the war, while trying to shine as much light on the so called "success" of it. The Iraqi media achieved a great deal by showing the American population the cause of their war, making them feel guilt and regret for their actions, while also hiding the Iraqi military losses shown at the same time in the American media.

During the Iraq War there were quite a few small incidents which weren't noticed as much as those previously mentioned but still significant to the media misrepresenting the war. One such event was when two American helicopters crashed on March 20 as well as on March 21, day 1 and day 2 of the war, and of course the Iraqis took advantage of this and stated that they shot down the helicopters. This was effective in a way scaring the American troops, making them think that he Iraqi's were not as passive as once projected, while the Iraqi troops gained more confidence for themselves making them fight harder and more motivated. Another such event which wasn't as questionable as this but was a clear sign of propaganda from the Iraqi side was during the raid of Saddam International Airport, and this is shown clearly in the American media in videos taken as well as pictures, to this physical evidence the Iraqi's counter measured with the statement saying that the Iraqi's had lost control but was once again in command and that the US troops were beginning to "commit suicide on the wall of Baghdad" as Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed al-Sah haf stated in a speech of the denial of coalition advances. Iraqi troops were beginning to fall at about this time and therefore had not as great effect as hoped by the Iraqi government; the Americans gained confidence from this and pursued the Iraqi information minister as a joke.

These events were small but significant to the war propaganda. Media played an important role in the Iraq war increasing the confidence and morals of the soldiers on both sides of the war. There was no difference between the effectiveness of the propaganda from the different sides, the propaganda from both sides did what was expected of it and joined the public and the military together to fight for a better cause. Media has always been misrepresenting wars in history dating far back, and has once again proved itself in doing so for the cause of its home land, this can be considered as misleading which it is, and wrong, causing great confusion among the public. The misrepresented information is a common and effective way to bring together a large nation for a single cause.