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= =  "Truth Is Always The First Casualty Of War" Throughout history, every war has always included at least one lie in its plot. This was no different for wars that the United States of America have fought. Some see lies as needed to gain support for a cause, others view it as a destructive way of tricking people into an agenda. However, most people would agree that we should not trust everything someone says, once either a lie or agenda behind the lie is pointed out. Throughout history, many have exposed these lies and have shown the world who we can and cannot trust. In the months before the Iraq war, there was much speculation from western citizens on what exactly was happening in the poverty struck nation of Iraq half way across the world. This lead way to what would possibly be the most propaganda and scapegoat filled war in the history of the United States. The first main talks about the possibility of Iraq possessing a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) began at the United Nations. In the coming months, many countries and their leaders would show support for the investigation. Eventually, both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that diplomacy had failed and that they were certain that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This is where the propaganda began. Many news stations and other media forms began to talk about the certainty of the invasion of Iraq. They would replay information given by the UN on how they came to this conclusion. The problem with this is that rarely did any form of media question what was going on. They took the UN's word and believed them. It would appear that the only news stations that actually reported on a challenging view were either foreign or just not popular enough to be heard. With such a large amount of support for the coming war from public officials, many people took it as absolute fact. So, on March 20th, 2003, A coalition of military powers crossed the Kuwait border into Iraq. Within two years of the invasion 25,000 civilians directly died from the invasion itself. This was often understated in the media of western nations. The common thing to report about in the United States were soldiers lives and battles they fought in. They would show them breaking down doors, looking for suspected terrorists. They would walk them outside and have them checked before being sent back in. Rarely did they ever show the point of view of the men, women and children on the other side of the barrel. It was true that removing Saddam Hussein from leadership was a great thing for the people, but the media would not show at what cost it was to them. It would take a small news station located in the State of Qatar to provide a counter offensive to the onslaught of western media. Al Jazeera reported on Iraq throughout the war. It provided information that went completely against the majority of propaganda out there. Because of this, many people accused it of being propaganda itself. Al Jazeera reported all across Iraq, often where civilians were nearby. They showed destruction, death, and chaos. Unfortunately, Al Jazeera was not popular and did not reach the United States. This allowed stations like CNN to take advantage of their broadcasting's. In one case, CNN showed video footage of dead and dying Iraqi civilians that still had the Al Jazeera watermark on the video footage. Both the Al Jazeera and CNN voice overs completely conflicted each other. Al Jazeera said that these people were just civilians, which either died from direct fire or bombing. CNN reported that they may have been terrorists or insurgents framed to look like civilians to make the western nations look bad. Whether much of the video footage was either way, there was a certainty about Iraq in the end. After long battles throughout Iraq, the UN was forced to come to the conclusion that there were no WMDs located in Iraq, at least none they could find. It was also found that intelligence at the time did not point directly to the claim that there were WMDs in Iraq. It was found that evidence had been chosen to be presented, while others were left out. Even the CIA thought it was unlikely that Iraq had or was developing WMDs. This lead to only one reason behind it, scapegoats. Many people believe that the UN claimed that there were WMDs so that they would give themselves the right to invade Iraq. But this answer only leads to another question, what use would it have to do so? Even with this speculation, many news stations did not talk about it. Many hosts like Bill O'Reilly who said that he was certain that Iraq had nuclear weapons, were forced to apologize. Yet, many leaders still refuse to this day to admit that they did anything wrong. Its possible that because of the media, these leaders are able to keep that stance without huge retaliation from the citizens. The media can decide whats right and whats wrong, and what the citizen will hear and what he will not. In many cases, the media can decide to go after something, or to go against it. Their choice can change the minds of hundreds and thousands of citizens across the world. They can edit the truth or completely throw it out the window. The media was able to focus on one side of the argument over Iraq, and therefore maintain American's viewpoints on the situations going on. But with the advent of many stations like Al Jazeera going onto the internet, slowly more Americans began to wake up to what was really going on. This itself also proves that media can influence the population an entirely different way. In the end, you may not realize it, but the opinion you have might have actually been influenced by the media itself.


 * ~ Step ||~ Task ||~ Answer ||
 * 1 || 1 || The types of media that I can think of are Newspaper,Internet, Magazines, TV, Radio. ||
 * 1 || 2 || Newspapers are made to inform you of the latest news. Internet is used to spread the news worldwide. Magazines are meant to entertain or inform you of different things like, new styles or politics, it just depends on what magazine that you are reading. TV tells you of the latest news around your area, about the news of your country, and about the world. Radio also serves the same purpose as TV except for the fact that there is no video. ||
 * 1 || 3 || The media is influenced by the political, economical, and social factors by they always talk about or keep you updated on these types of things because this is what is going on in our country. Some other things that influence the media are celebrities, citizens, and new ideas. ||
 * 1 || 4 || I think the effects on those groups of people that are not represented by these media stories and those who portray them are that they would have a different point of view so that it would be biased and not all the way true. ||
 * 2 || 1 || In this video, there are two sides. In the American video, they are making it seem like the Americans are doing what is right and that the Iraqis are wrong. In the Iraqi video, they are showing all kinds of bloodshed and innocent deaths committed by the American troops. ||
 * 2 || 2 || Iraqi culture is very interesting. Iraq has many different religions. One of them is the Islamic religion. Iraq is very Islamic, like 97% Islamic. Being Islamic means that you believe that god is one and that he can't be compared to anything else imaginable. It also means that you believe that your purpose of existence is to worship God. Some of the major cities in Iraq are Baghdad, Mosul, and Basrah. Baghdad has 5,605,000 people in it. That is all in one city.The Iraqi government was a dictatorship at the time of the war controlled by Saddam Hussein, but now it is a democracy very similar to the U.S. government in that they have they have the branches of government too. Iraq's social structure is made up of many different types of people from the same religion. It is mostly overtaken by the Sunni Arab population. ||
 * 2 || 3 || There are two sides to every story. In resource 2 the pictures are portraying the same event but on the two different sides of the story. If you look at the American pictures, it is making it seem like the Americans are the heros and that they did everything right. In the Iraqi pictures it is showing you how the Americans were making it look better than it actually was. ||
 * 2 || 4 || Choices were made by both sides of the argument in depicting the war in Iraq. American newspapers would often show close ups on crowds to make them appear larger. Sometimes they would also say that some of the many civilians killed could have been insurgents or terrorists themselves so that they could not attract much attention to it. The videos from the United States often showed US soldiers aiding civilians and fighting enemies, when many Iraqi videos showed US planes bombing the same innocent civilians from collateral damage. ||
 * 2 || 5 || This information affects many Americans understanding of the war in Iraq. It shows that there are two sides to every event, even when one side is much larger then then the other. It shows that the government and media can edit information if they are willing to. It also proves that in some cases, the government is willing to make up scapegoats to advance and complete their own goals. ||
 * 2 || 6 || Many choices were made by the media on how they would make the event appear to both the American and Middle Eastern people. The media of the US decided to omit much information and evidence of civilian casualties and atrocities committed by the United States. They also were able to convey information that was fact into an almost opinionated view point. For example, the media would often show information, but twist it in their own way to show a different story. The Iraqi media often would do almost the same thing, but in the opposite view point. They would show plenty of videos of civilian causalities and destruction to local area, but would avoid many good things about the Iraq war. However, the Iraqi media often acted as an enemy to the US media to try and make sure that the truth about civilian deaths were heard. ||
 * 2 || 7 || I believe the newspaper images were doctored so that they could show one of the two viewpoints. They wanted the event to appear to be huge and well liked by many Iraqis living there. However, the truth was that many people were either scared or hated the event and therefore did not show up. Instead of the media simply not reporting on the event, they decided to edit the event to fit their needs and viewpoints. This would reward them with money and support for the US involvement in foreign nations, even when many people who lived in Iraq and the area around it wanted them out. By reporting the event falsely they not only lie to the American people, but they also act carelessly about the Iraqi opinions, which this war was supposedly about. ||
 * 2 || 8 || The purpose that the newspapers doctored image was that they wanted to have support for the US involvement in Iraq. They also knew that it would make them money because of how popular the event would be if it was like they said. They knew that if they reported the event as it was, it would show the exact opposite of what they wanted and most people would not be interested in it. ||
 * 2 || 9 || The media and the government both gain from these pictures. The media gains money for making a popular news article which was talked about for days. The government gains support for the war as they see that the Iraqis want there involvement in the picture. However, the truth is much different if it was to be reported. ||
 * 2 || 10 || I think that an altered image can change history and has. I believe that at anytime where both the media and government lies to you, it should be a big event in history as it shows a lack of trust between the government and its people. It also shows an agenda created by either group for their own purpose. An altered image could also change history by editing the way we think about an event, once we know the pictures were edited themselves. ||
 * 3 || 1 || Jordan & I got newspaper covers numbers 7&8. The first picture is The Rocky Mountain News. The RMN is an American Newspaper. The second picture is The Sydney Morning Harold. The SMH is an Australian Newspaper. In the American newspaper, There is a huge picture and a huge title with no information, whereas the Australian paper, it has a normal sized heading, a normal sized picture, and some information to go with it. Another thing that is different is that the American paper is based on the American victory and the Australian paper is based on the Iraqi loss. ||
 * 3 || 2 || The audiences that read these newspapers are the citizens of these countries. They are influenced towards whatever is written in these papers. ||
 * 3 || 3 || In the RMN, they are making it seem like the Iraqis are the bad guys. Which they are sort of, but they are making it seem like it was all of their fault. In the SMH, they make it seem like the US is the bad guy. In a way these two are both right, but in a way these two are both wrong. The RMN is leaving out the devastation suffered by the Iraqis and the SMH is leaving out the good things that America is doing. ||