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Srbija 2020

Iraq: Let’s Bury the Casualties

Has anyone noticed that Iraq seems to have fallen off the agenda recently. I hadn’t seen much on Iraq for a while and as an English voter was concerned where it had disappeared to. This article is my response to Iraq’s apparent fall from media grace: 

Washington and London continue to remain stuck in the quagmire that is Iraq. Casualty figures remain high or rise, and yet world public and media attention upon the conflict has dwindled. Is this a concerted effort by Trans-Atlantic dominated news agencies to keep the blood-shed off the news agenda, or is it war weariness – the kind where we switch off or over when we realize the topic is Iraq? 

With the anniversary of September 11th just past the world’s press has been focused upon the past, justifiably so, owing to the nature of the tragedy. But by concentrating upon such events the world’s press has been able to place a convenient vale over the present and sideline the ongoing bloodshed and interventionism in Iraq. But is it not in many ways easier for Washington and London and their mouth pieces within the world’s media to dwell upon and build up sympathy from September 11th than to attempt to build up support and continue an analysis and examination of the present? 

Post-September 11th the United States could rely upon sympathy and support almost universally. The shocking footage of the two planes slamming into the World Trade towers could have justified almost any American retaliatory action. But as Washington’s adventurism (and London’s apparent blind faith in American policy) expanded beyond dealing with perpetrators of the East Coast attacks and expanded to include dealing with new enemies tenuously linked with al-Qaeda, support began to dwindle. Despite efforts by the US, Britain and the likes of Fox, CNN and the BBC to outline the justification for war against Iraq (Weapons of Mass Distraction – a misquote that even Tony Blair found himself using) and to demonize Saddam support began to quickly fall away, particularly outside the US and UK. 

Following the invasion the American’s were able to gain a boost from such media-friendly images as the toppling of Saddam’s statue and the capture of their bedraggled and bearded adversary, who had been hiding in a hole no less (how un-dictator-like!) Now however, what more ammunition can Washington and London feed the media machine to justify the war, to continue people’s interest? Very little is the probable answer. Bush and Blair recognize that support for the war is drying and up what can they do to bring about a reversal in opinion? Produce a SCUD or two?

Lacking a SCUD or two Washington and London have decided to bury the issue. If there is nothing eye-catching or opinion shaping then they are relying upon the world’s media to turn to other sources of news. Despite mounting casualties and a descent into virtual civil war the West’s media has dampened the tempo of its previously frenetic coverage. It is probable that the Trans-Atlantic capitals encouraged this shift. They recognize that they cannot win a media war through constant images of seemingly endless violence. In the age of the sound-bite and Windows Media Player only drama, not daily but unspectacular blood-shed, will change public opinion. And Bush and Blair need to seriously change public opinion regarding the ongoing conflict in Iraq.  But they can’t change public opinion with what they have now. No SCUD’s, no more Saddam. And so for them hiding Iraq behind other news stories seems to be the answer. But have we not fallen for these new stories, this new trick? Are we not partly to blame? 

Perhaps we are war weary? Are we tired of the images from Iraq, or is it that we find unpalatable the prospect of a war without apparent victory, without the toppling of Saddam’s statue, even the attack on the World Trade Centre? Media images give us only a taste of the realities of war, but it is a short, horrifying taste. We are drawn to these images like a moth to a light, but after a certain fill we move to another source. What we can’t seem to palate is the endless reality that is in fact, so often the truth. Certain conflicts simply won’t bring exciting new events for the network to broadcast night after night and we would simply turn over if they failed in this task.  

This is what has happened in Iraq. Interest has dried up as quickly as support. And now the conflict is being slowly buried as unpalatable – repetition without end, the worst sin in our media savvy age. To do so however sets a dangerous precedent that might allow future countries to carry out wars under a media black-out. We might be tired of the endless images and news about war but we must be careful not to become complacent. War should not be ignored, hidden or deemed un-news worthy. We must not allow politicians and the media to bury war. It is a brutal reality that we must face. War is a great and evil social upheaval that we must not allow to fall out of the public glare.