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Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq Paperback – Bargain Price, June 30, 2003
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- Print length176 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHodder
- Publication dateJune 30, 2003
- Dimensions5.52 x 0.66 x 8.32 inches
- ISBN-10073361812X
- ISBN-13978-0733618123
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Product details
- ASIN : B000EBCPD0
- Publisher : Hodder; First Edition first Printing (June 30, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 176 pages
- ISBN-10 : 073361812X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0733618123
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.52 x 0.66 x 8.32 inches
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Indeed, shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, members of the current administration hired advertising executives to direct a media campaign to convince the populace of the need to conduct a preemptive attack of Iraq in pursuit of eventual security against perceived potential terrorist threats. President Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice was quoted as pointedly requesting position papers from her White House staffers as to how the administration could immediately begin using the events of 911 to further the administration's domestic and foreign policy goals. Other public relation advisors were brought in to help construct the Bush administration's on-point approach toward justifying and selling the idea of the preemptive strike to a public both disoriented and frightened by the terrorist attack on 911. A variety of different attempts to forward this action were taken and `floated' in various ploys to judge what specific combinations of reasons and justifications would best `play' to sell the war to the aggravated and anxious populace.
Thus we had an initial attempt by the organs of government to use the realtively straightforward idea of simple `regime change' as a justification for moving against Iraq, which clearly failed to elicit the desired positive effect on public opinion. Next on the sheet of potential arguments that the Bush administration was auditioning was a rather tortured attempt to use the United Nations as a forum to drag out old unresolved charges against Iraq involving international inspections, an issue which had both they and the Clinton administration hasd allowed to lay fallow for the previous four years. When this argument also failed as the rest of the civilized world reacted in horror to the procoative notion of immedaitely attacking Iraq, the Bush administration began to thread together a more independent and more substantive (though circumstantial) set of `smoking gun' notions linking Iraq to terrorist groups like Osama Bin Laden's Al Quaida on the one hand, and suggesting renewed attempts to gain a significant new capability to develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the part of Saddam Hussein's government, on the other. Evidently the Bush White House staffers and the analysts with both the Defense Department and intelligence agencies didn't allow themselves to be unduly hamstrung by the available evidence. Instead, they exaggerated, misinterpreted, and even prevaricated about both the nature of and the validity of such "evidence" in constructing their arguments suporting intervention to the public.
This is obviously a book that will be seen as exteremly controversial and politically provocative, one that the various pundits on either side of the political aisle will rush to either endorse or assail in order to gain immediate advantage, and to attempt to put the best `spin' on long before the public has a chance to evaluate it on their own. In this way, even the argument about the way this administration has used a cynical, subversive and anti-democratic propagandist approach to explain and justify the war against Iraq may become yet another weapon in the ongoing media effort to persuade and describe the public perceptions of and interpretation of, events the powers that be want to manipulate for public consumption. This is a wonderful book, and one that is sure to soon be the talk of the pundits. Move over, Ann Coulter, your fifteen minutes in the spotlight's glare is over. Enjoy!
This book discusses the techniques and modern history of propaganda and advertising as it was applied to justify the current conflict in Iraq. It does so however from a general non-scientific viewpoint, and thus does not attempt to give a scientific understanding of why populations are sometimes taken by sloganeering, propaganda, and other forms of media hype. If the book made connections with current research in neuroscience, it would have been a lot more interesting. As it stands it should be thought of as a "first approximation" to a full understanding of the efficacy of advertising and propaganda techniques. Such an understanding would be very helpful to those who are not only curious about the effects of the media on the human brain, but also want to discover countermeasures to these effects.
Some of the virtues of the book include its description of the extent to which the horror of the 9/11 attacks was exploited by many different groups, and not just those in government. The current administration of course was the worse culprit and took full advantage of the anxiety felt by most everyone after 9/11 in order to launch a brutal, illegal, and immoral war in Iraq. The authors give many more examples of political and interest groups who squeezed every drop they could out of the 9/11 disaster. The tactics of deception used were independent of the beliefs and ideologies of the respective groups. Both Democrats and Republicans had absolutely no qualms about using the 9/11 nightmare to propagate with gusto their political memes.
When reading the book, it is amazing to see the amount of money that was spent by public relations and advertising firms hired specifically to take advantage of the fears of the "general public." The authors correctly advise against letting fear rule our lives, and this book actually assists in encouraging a strong sense of skepticism toward the media and the government. In every waking hour of our lives we must critically examine all news stories, speeches, and political and commercial advertisements so as not to be inadvertently influenced by their content. Neuroscience teaches us that the human brain is susceptible to deceptive information if conscious effort is not made to examine it carefully and deliberately, but it is also able to differentiate between what is plausible and what is implausible. A focused, skeptical public can definitely serve as countervailing power to the lies and rubbish that proceed from cynical and amoral advertising agencies and government institutions.
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FOX,CNN他ニュースネットワークは爆撃されたイラク人被害者の映像(=死)を徹底に隠蔽し、戦争報道ならぬ「戦争ライブ」で視聴率競争に熱を上げる。大手メディア企業にとって「真実」は経営者の関心事項ではない。
湾岸戦争で戦場を駆けた軍用4WD車を、テレビで観ていたアーノルド・シュワルツネガーが街乗り用に要求。それに応えてメーカーのAMゼネラル社は「画期的な新製品」として軍用車両を一般化し、結果として米国中で大流行したSUV車。「愛国」の名の下に、戦争までも大量消費するという不気味な資本主義の一例だ。
つまるところ、アメリカにとって戦争とは、国!家を挙げた大事業なのだ。株主とCEOの利益最大化を目指し、米国の企業人たちは積極的に、この狂気のビジネスのために労働者の税金を投資しているのである。ファーストフード店勤務よりも安い月給で地獄の戦場に赴き、運良く帰国しても劣化ウラン弾の後遺症に苦しむアメリカ兵士達の警告も聞かずに。
この本を読めば、そんなアメリカが実感できる。








