War Blog
The broadcast of images of war have developed so much. During the Second World War the images published were simply propaganda that was strictly controlled by the government to project the correct image to the general public. The contemporary war in Iraq has produced some truly shocking images that have not been censored and they are spread on the Internet around the world. The images include footage from soldiers helmet camcorder that they will publish on the internet, recently there has been a desire for ‘war porn’, which is people with a curiosity for the gruesome images of war, the bloody, dismembered bodies. Soldiers are paid to provide these images for these websites.
Post 9/11 there has been a back lash against showing any images of the twin towers being destroyed because people say it is not tasteful for the families of the victims. But no one has questioned why 9/11 happened, could it be due to American foreign policy? No one has questioned the USA’s part in why ‘Al-Queda’ decided to attack them.
‘Al-Queda’ is a dismembered Muslim extremist group, with hundreds of individual units claiming to be ‘Al-Queda’, however the group that carried out the 9/11 attack knew the power their attack would have. The object of the attack was to make an image that would have a massive psychological effect on the American people, to shake the very foundations of America. The iconic image of the planes crashing into the twin towers was shown throughout the world, almost immediately by media coverage, this was provided by the American media.
Al-Queda was quoted after the 9/11 attacks as saying “there is no answer to our image victory”, they knew that there was no real response that America could give to 9/11. They manipulated the western media to achieve the image victory that they wanted.
But where did this anti-American feeling come from? America has always used and abused other countries to their own advantage for example Afghanistan America provided arms to Afghanistan during the 1980’s to fight against the Soviet Union. The USA wanted Afghanistan to triumph against the Soviet Union because the USA didn’t agree with the policies of the Soviet Union. They would not fight the Soviet Union, they would get other countries to go to war on their behalf. There has been a backlash and because the USA has now attacked Afghanistan and they have responded by using the weapons and training that they originally received from the USA.
Since 9/11 the answer that the USA has provided has been military and they have gone to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. These wars have only affected the civilians in these countries, their homes have been bombed and innocent civilians have been killed.
