Propaganda failure
One of the biggest losers in the war in Iraq has been the propaganda machine on both sides. This should be a matter of concern, especially to the mass media which have been exploited as a means of conveying and imposing propaganda. First, it is worth emphasizing that the grounds for the US invasion of Iraq were Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, etc.) which was indirectly linked to the international fight against terrorism. Indeed, the actual invasion was preceded by months of strenuous efforts to convince the public of the viability of such an argument. But the real reason for this war was not to reveal the tyrannical nature of Saddam Hussein’s regime, as the public demolition of the dictator’s statues would suggest, as this has been public knowledge since 1968 when the ruling Ba’ath party came to power. The propaganda of the Iraqi side was exposed in the same way and, as a result, all media organizations which made undiscerning use of official statements from Baghdad were similarly discredited. All this babble was aired for weeks as reliable information, on-the-spot discoveries and positive forecasts. As a result, the end of the war came as more of a surprise to the worldwide victims of Iraqi propaganda than to the Iraqis themselves…
