In the weeks and months preceding the Iraq war in March 2003, various US officials informed the already baffled public that there would be tactical misinformation for the purpose of derailing Iraq’s war stratagems and protecting the lives of American soldiers.
This paved the way for the return of embedded journalism, which destroyed whatever little credibility both the government and the corporate media still possessed.
Upon their arrival and subsequent takeover of the Baghdad airport, US forces set up a radio station targeting the greater Baghdad area, with the sole purpose of disseminating half-truths, even outright lies as part of the psychological warfare already underway in various parts of the country. The British Army embarked on similar projects in the south.
Meanwhile, the regions with a Kurdish majority in northern Iraq as well as parts of Iran were also hubs for propaganda.
While many are familiar with the deadly “incidents” that led to the death and wounding of scores of journalists in Iraq, few are aware of the takeover and meticulous restructuring of official Iraqi television by American media experts with the help of friendly Arab media, with a key ally coming from Lebanon. In a very short time, Iraqi television commenced exalting the US occupation and their faithful partners.
A few obstinate media outlets were swiftly silenced, either through intimidation or by being completely thrown out of the country, ironically accused by American and Iraqi officials of being purveyors of propaganda.
Considering all of this, for unfiltered truths and unvarnished facts to be allowed out of Iraq (literally and figuratively) is a stupendous task. I have thoroughly interviewed people who departed Iraq at various stages following the invasion. I am convinced that the hundreds of media outlets operating from Iraq or disseminating information about Iraq are, sometimes unwittingly, propagating either exaggerated or completely fabricated narratives.
Even those who have good intentions and wish to present an objective assessment of the situation in Iraq find themselves in a quandary. Most of the information available as the basis for a reporter’s story is produced, sanctioned or cleared by the US military. The inevitable element of propaganda makes such information questionable at best.
An independent journalist has to scrutinize the official and prevailing narrative in an attempt to extract facts out of contradictions and inconsistencies.
The real peril in all of this is that public opinion is, to a great extent, shaped and manipulated by the official account, semi-official interpretations (those of ex-military men-turned “experts” and official and corporate funded think-tanks) and mainstream media oversimplification.
What is the purpose of this manipulation of the media? To convince everyone that a sustained American military presence is essential to prevent Iraq sliding into a civil war.
For example, it is now regarded as an uncontested fact that the disgruntled Sunni population in areas that form an imaginary triangle in the center of Iraq fuels the so-called insurgency. We are also told that the reason behind the Sunni fury was their loss of power and status following the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Since Saddam is a Sunni himself, he supposedly favored the Sunni Arab minority over the country’s Shiite majority, who are merely fighting for what is rightfully theirs, according to the edicts of democracy.
Thus the US military occupation is only to protect the country’s fresh democratic experience that restored order in favor of the Shiite majority, whose “democratically elected” representatives are in fact demanding that the US military stay in Iraq.
The insurgency, according to this account, is not directed against coalition forces, but against the Shiites.
Only very few in the US media (excluding online media and some alternative radio) manages to break away from the above construct, which bears little or no resemblance to the truth. But we should challenge this narrative for a wider and more realistic understanding of the war, its complexities and its true objectives.
— Ramzy Baroud teaches mass communication at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology, Malaysia Campus. His forthcoming book, “Writings on the Second Palestinian Uprising,” is being published by Pluto Press, London.
