Media Propaganda Hides American Terrorism
An article in this month's "Stuff" magazine for men, titled "Die American Scum" tells us that the world sucks. It sucks because while Americans have given other countries "Mickey Mouse, burgers and gum, won wars for them, kept the peace and disposed of dictators," all we have gotten in return is terrorism. The article, by John Parrish, goes on to discourage Americans from traveling to 10 "terrorist" countries including Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Colombia and Mexico.
While the article attempts to further the notion that evil terrorists in the rest of the world are out to get innocent Americans, like many other sources of contorted propaganda, it fails to look at why. Through the news,
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Yet, we had full knowledge of Saddam's use of chemical weapons in his war on Iran from 1980-1988. In fact, the United States fueled Saddam's war because Iran, at the time, was itself hateful of America. This demonstrates two things.
First, the United States labels countries as "terrorist" only when it is in our own best interests. The American government was promoting Saddam right up until the Gulf War. Second, people in other countries hate the United States for a reason. For Iraqis, it is the strangulation of their economy because of sanctions. For Iran in the 1980s, it was that the America backed a coup in 1953 to re-install Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a repressive dictator with a record teeming with brutal suppression of political dissent.
The United States' support for the Iranian dictator is not an isolated incident. We live under the false impression that America fights dictatorships everywhere and aims to spread democracy. In fact, America has often promoted the harshest of dictators. According to David Lowe of "The Progressive" (September 1998), Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was the Haitian leader of a death squad that killed thousands during military rule from 1991-1994. While today, America refers to Constant's group as "terrorist," he was once on the Central Intelligence Agency's payroll.
If we look beyond
In his article “The Price We Pay”, Adam Mayblum asserts the power of our country stating “If you want to kill us, leave us alone because we will do it by ourselves. If you want to make us stronger, attack and we unite. This is the ultimate failure of terrorism against The United States and the ultimate price we pay to be free, to decide where we want to work, what we want to eat, and when & where we want to go on vacation. The very moment the first plane was hijacked, democracy won”. Mayblum’s purpose for writing this article was to show that we aren’t scared by an attack and that we aren’t going down without a fight. Mayblum was successful when writing this article. He demonstrates the strength of the United States and shows that our confidence won’t waver as easily as other nations would hope.
In 2003, President George Walker Bush and his administration sent the United States military to war in Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s ruler and dictator, who murdered over 600,000 innocent people, and “...used chemical weapons to remove Kurds from their villages in northern Iraq…” (Rosenberg 2). According to the Department of Defense’s website, the war removed Saddam Hussein from power, ending an era when “Iraqis had fewer rights than when its representatives signed the Human Rights Declaration in 1948” (1). American blood, money, and honor was spent in what was allegedly a personal war and perhaps a fight to gain oil and natural resources, but only history may reveal the truth. Although the Iraq War removed tyrant Saddam Hussein from power, the failures of the war dwarf the successes.
Iraq was accused by the U.S of having links to Al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for 9/11, and were harboring terrorists and terrorist camps. An article on Iraq’s ties to terrorism by the George Bush administration said “Iraq shelters terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which has used terrorist violence against Iran”. Other groups include Palestine Liberation Front, Abu Nidal Organization, and hosts a training camp that trains for “hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities, sabotage, and assassinations.” Breaking down the organizations, the MKO, were only supported by Iraq during the Iran, and Iraq war. The MKO are derived from leftist groups in Iran, that were targeted after the Islamic Revolution. They were driven into Iraq, and from there set up a proxy government. The United States criticism of Iraq for sheltering the terrorist group is hypocritical because after the invasion, the United States used the group for intelligence, and to undermine Iran. The MKO accorded a new status by the Pentagon: "protected persons" under the Geneva Convention. The PLF, and Abu Nidal Organizations were no longer active terrorists groups by 2003, with most members fleeing to other countries, or joining other organizations. All three of the main Bush administration’s reasons to go to war were highly critiqued, somewhat
The sun rises to a deep spring-blue sky on Sunday the Fifth of May 2017; 51,000 people are converging on downtown Spokane for the 39th running of the Bloomsday road race. Thirty miles to the south, near the town of Fairfield, a small cluster of people watch from a distance as two men in protective coveralls and respirators pour fifty gallons of a clear fluid into the payload compartment of a Bell 300C helicopter. The crop duster, which was purchased for cash in Walla Walla, is a descendent of the Korean War era helicopters depicted on the television series MASH. After the liquid is loaded, and the outside of the helicopter is sanitized, the pilot runs
In the case of the lackawanna six, (bucci,3) was a case of five of the six individuals born in lackawanna N.Y. they were convicted of receiving training from al-qaeda camps. The same goes for another american, jose padilla (bucci,4) was convicted for receiving training and orders from al-qaeda to detonate a dirty bomb. These two incidents prove that many americans that despised american govt. Felt safe to express their hatred towards the U.S. due to them finding comfort in groups that share their beliefs.
Societies will always have problems that cause some sort of reaction from individuals who believe that their social stability is being endangered. There have been a number of moral panics which have captivated society in terror and more often than not, owing to unfamiliarity. This essay will discuss the perception of a moral panic and will look at the case of the September 11th Terrorist attack against the United States of America, which triggered a colossal conflict of morality within modern day society. This essay will also analyse terrorism as a perceived deviance, the role of the moral entrepreneur and folk devil, in order to develop a level of understanding to the causes of this particular moral panic and its effects on society.
One of the greatest revolutions in the twentieth century was not political in nature, however, it aided in many different political revolutions. This revolution was the communications revolution. The twentieth century has experienced one of the greatest changes in means of communication including technologies such as radio, motion pictures, the Internet, advanced communications and most importantly the television. Sadly, political leaders and the government to convince or persuade the masses that their ideas supercede those of others have utilized these technologies.
Terrorism and the United States A cloud of anthrax spores looming in the sky of San Diego California
However, Hussein serves no threat to the United States. Although he has violated the international law and human rights of Kuwait, his actions do not affect us. He does not hold WMD’s, as we have undergone 550 unexpected inspections at 350 sites, and have found nothing. There is no need to put US civilian lives at risk, when the policies that we already have are effective.
The world has been changed forever since the tragic attack on September 11, 2001. An observer described the atrocity by saying, "It just went 'bam,' like a bomb went off. It was like holy hell (CNN 1). " The new world will be different from what any American has known before. A new war has arisen, not against a foreign country or a major region of the world, but rather against a select group of people who have the capabilities to destroy the lives of so many. The war against terrorism which the United States is now forced to wage will not be an easily won battle. This war will not be fought solely on scattered battlefields in certain countries. It will instead permeate through every aspect of life as we
In times of War, the media plays a crucial role both in reporting, monitoring and giving updates. During the Vietnam War of 1955-1975, the American press played crucial roles of reporting until it ended up shifting its tone under the influence of occurrence of some events like the Tet Offensive, the My Lai Massacre, the bombing of Cambodia and leaking of Pentagon papers resulting into lack of trust in the press (Knightly 1975). From the beginning of the war up to present times there have been undying debates over the role of media in the war. The have been various criticisms over the American News Media’s actions and influences on the outcome of the war. The debate is embedded on the particular political assumptions perceived across the
“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in
September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations
Terrorism can be defined as the use of criminal violence to try to force a government to change. It can also be defined as the use of criminal violence that groups or individuals use to seek revenge and cause heartache amongst those that they want to hurt/threaten. Most terrorist groups prefer to target people for a more dramatic response and celebrate when the media broadcasts their violent acts on television and throughout the news. Lately, more and more deadly terrorist acts have been captured on film and broadcasted in all parts of the world. Sixty years ago recordings of terroristic acts didn’t spread through the world as quickly as they do now because technology wasn’t as advance. That is just one of the
Ever since the beginning of the terrorist attacks on American soil, the War on Terror has been involved in the lives of Americans and nations near us. The War on Terror’s background originated through conflicts between warring countries in the Middle East; U.S. involvement started when a terrorist guided plane crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 in New York City. The attack was suspected to be the work of the middle-eastern terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The U.S. military, under the leadership of then commander-in-chief George W. Bush, declared a “War on Terror” on the terrorist group and the fighting began.