PR goes on war

Going on war any time soon? That’s your ‘must –have’ check list: Heavy machinery, tunks, missiles, rackets, artillery, torpedoes and PR. Beg me pardon– Spin not PR.

 Yes, PR has become an essential object for any government leading the nations to war. In this regards, the extraordinary £250 million dollars spend on public relations by Bush administration (double what Clinton spent.) is well justified.  It has been proved that President Bush steered the nation to war using fraudulent intelligence, misleading and misinforming the public.

 I will share just few shocking examples on how US government perfected Propaganda tactics in the runway to the Iraqi war. To set the news agenda the government simply produced the stories. In 2005 it was revealed that White House produced videos that were designed to look like news reports from independent journalists and were then aired on the evening news.  Shocking as it might seem –as revealed by New York Times in 2008 to gain most valuable 3^rd party endorsement government trained the retired military officers to act as independent analyst on talk shows and in news programmes. Growing politicians’ awareness about the role of social media in shaping public opinion prompted Bush administration to contract HBGary Federal to develop software that would create fake social media accounts in order to promote Pentagon propaganda on social networks. 

What could be more mesmerising for the public than a story of 19 year old, blond, innocent girl captured and maltreated by Iraqi soldiers? The publicity opportunity not to be missed. Jessica Lynch was a clerk serving during 2003 invasion. She was injured and captured by Iraqis and subsequently retrieved by US Special Forces. In US people minds she became a heroine who fought until the last gunshot, killing several Iraqi soldiers and survived despite being shot and stabbed. Thanks to independent journalists’ investigation it was revealed that the reports about Jessica’s mistreatment were untrue. As per witnesses’ reports she has received best possible medical care and support form hospital staff. Event more shocking – she did not have any bullet or knife injuries but only broken limbs as an effect of the road accident. US military has fled the hospital despite of their knowledge that at the time there were no Iraqi in the area. Handcuffed doctors recall scenes like from the Hollywood movie:‘. They made a show—an action movie likes Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan, with jumping and shouting, breaking down doors’. All that was recorded and aired over and over again on TV as a brilliant propaganda measure to support the war case and ‘raise the morale in the nation’…

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 There is nothing wrong with raising the morale of the nation going on war as that’s what makes people feel the common cause. However in the case of Jessica Lynch the government’s aim was to mislead the public and manipulate it into the war.