The Invasion Of Iraq
American duty, or American greed?
What exactly was the Invasion of Iraq?
The Invasion of Iraq was a US lead retaliation to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. George. W Bush ordered an invasion with the help of UK, Australia, Spain, and Poland. This mission's ultimate goal was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, destroy their government's support of terrorism, and to free the Iraq people under the ruthless rule of Saddam Hussein. The Invasion if Iraq lasted from the 20th of March, to the 1st of May in the year of 2003. This invasion lasted nearly two weeks over a month, and it was the start to the most recent Iraq war.
Operation Iraqi Freedom - NBC News Documentary - 2003
The documentary above shows NBC's participation in the Invasion by documenting the happenings of the missions being carried out. It also explains in great detail the order of events taken place in the Invasion of Iraq.
The Supportive Side Of the War Effort
The supportive side had anti-terrorist, justice serving, and patriotic viewpoints on the invasion of Iraq. With NBC news recording the war effort on a 24/7 basis, Americans felt the war effort from their living rooms. For visual reference, you can see in the video, the patriotic support that NBC news was able generate through there constant flow of information and respect towards the US military. The war to the supportive citizens was an effort to decrease terrorism, and bring Al Qaeda to justice for the attacks of September 11th.
For visual reference, you can see the picture of an American citizen protesting for the war effort. Using 9/11 as a reason for the invasion of Iraq, she gives a visual representation of a pro-war poster
The Unsupportive Side Of the War Effort
When we go to the side of the Unsupportive citizens towards the war effort, it is largely affected by two factors. Conspiracy theories, and Anti-War protestors. For visual reference, you can tell that the video given was very bias towards the war effort, however, there was visible signs of existing resistance towards the war effort. In the video, the mom of a Marine that was killed in battle, expressed her opinions towards the war broadcast. Her statement, "It is torture, every tank, every helicopter, and every military vehicle, I think to myself if thats my son." This shows the toll that the Invasion has taken on the families of soldiers. The also frequent conspiracy theories, such as the belief that our main cause for invading Iraq was for oil has some say. These do not take as much affect as the Anti-War movement, but non-the-least, still relevant.
For visual reference, you can see the Anti-War poster. It shows the views of those affected by the war and our treatment to the foreign nation Iraq.
Media Bias Explained.
Each side of the argument has valid points when it comes down to it. Support wants to end terrorism and free the Iraqi people, and Non-Support believes we spend too much money on the military, and that we only have gone to the middle east for the oil benefits. NBC news had obvious bias by loaded language towards the support side. The reporters only used positive informative tone towards the events happening in Iraq.
Historical Criticism.
When you think of the history of war, no war has been so closely documented like the Iraq war. The conservative views of the war effort were enflamed by the documentation of these battles. This made it really hard for people badly affected by the war to have their voices heard. The overall support that this war had was unbelievable due to modern day media.
Cultural Criticism
Looking at the culture of the early 2000s, there was a political split. Liberals wanted less, conservatives wanted more. It goes to show that the government in that time was very a very Republican based one. It seems more reasonable that we retaliate with Al Qaeda, yet there seems to be some loose ends as far as the decision making for this retaliation. It's debatable, but I believe there could have been a better way to go about things and that decisions made would have been more reasonable if there was more liberal power to balance the conservative support.
For visual reference, see the anti-war propaganda poster above.