I receive a BA in advertising design in 1957, and have worked 50 years in that area. That followed four years of service in the US Army--including a three-year enlistment (I needed a job) and when the 1950 war in Korea broke out, I was involuntarily extended for a year. I served as and infantry first scout. This is the job with the highest casualty rating, but somehow, I made it back home despite the fact that everyone else in my original squad was killed. And every day of my life since, I think of my young buddies who died in a war that no one understood, in a frozen country, thousands of miles away from their homes and loved ones. Wars suck.
In Korea we were fighting a Chinese army with better experience and leadership that outnumbered us by about five to one. Many of those soldiers were veterans of their victorious war--the prior year against the American-supported nationalist army. It was amazing what they could do without any air support for their front line soldiers. However, in my war, I never saw the use of “human shields” by either side. But about two million civilians were killed. The killing of civilians in all wars is mostly intentional.
My experience with war and propaganda studies channeled me into the peace movement where I have worked to change the policy of my country--when it goes astray. This is much like what you try to do as a parent, if you see any of your children go astray. Both jobs are difficult. There are rewards, but also many disappointments.
Propaganda in the planning and the pursuit of wars is extremely important for their support and success. Not that success in any wars means that they are any good. The propaganda preceding war always start with the belligerent country spinning itself as being victimized by the targeted country. Also the hawkish leadership of the belligerent country will demonized the leadership of the targeted country, while at the same time express a love for the people that they plan to bomb and kill in their invasion.
The leadership of the hawkish country will use the blatant lie that “no one wants war.” They will offer proposals that they know are unacceptable to the enemy. Then the politicians and other war-profiteers will wrap themselves around the flag and send our naive, and innocent young children to do the dirty work of war.
If you review the newspaper stories of the many wars that have happened in your own lifetime, it should be apparent that this same formula of lies and propaganda never changes. The Nazis did this propaganda well. In more recent years the wars orchestrated by the Americans and the Israelis have had similar expert propaganda.
Since in all modern wars most of the casualties of the attacking military will be children and other innocent and civilians, standard propaganda justifying these crimes is prepared ahead of time so as not to spoil the good warrior image. As was pointed out by the Pope a couple years ago weapons may have become so powerful that to even debate such things as just wars, or unjust wars is silly. Since even perfect targeting will kill not only legitimate targets, but also everyone else within a large impact zone.
The Israeli spin machine is probably the best in the business. The minute any children or civilian is killed in any war and in any country the prepared spin is sent out. A friendly American media will repeat the spin, Israeli supporters will be satisfied with that spin and become spinners themselves. According to Israeli spin, of the many thousands of Arabs killed by the Israelis in various wars, not a single killing of a civilian has ever been intentional. Who can believe that?
During war the prefered spin given is the “human shield” one. This is great propaganda because it does two things at once. It excuses the criminal behavior of the perpetrator while at the same time demonizing the enemy. The spin that “we were receiving fire from that area,” is OK, but not as good. Then there is the more general spin that “we are sorry for civilian all deaths, but they are unavoidable in wars” or the similar “We do all we can do avoid all civilian deaths, but it’s impossible in war.”
The killers of civilians will further spin the crimes by claiming that the alleged “human shields” users are the only ones responsible. They may even threaten to bring up charges to the UN against the “human shield” abusers. Of course there is never a follow through on that propaganda--but it’s repeated by the media, and it works regardless of facts.
Just yesterday this spin was again used by the Israelis. Since no Hamas body were found among the 43 children and local residents killed at the UN school compound in Jabaliya, the original spin is now changed. The wanted investigation by the Israelis is quickly forgotten, and now they are refusing any international review of this massacre. In Tel Aviv, Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, said Israel had already held an "initial investigation" which found that troops had returned fire from the UN building. Self investigations with no independent witnesses are an absurdity.
Why would the Israelis retract their threats to bring a complaint to the UN regarding Hamas using “human shields”? Obviously, no Hamas body found, means a revised spin and a self investigation to whitewash the killings. And the American media will again put on blinders and continue to blame the crude Hamas rockets for all civilian killings, without any regard whatever for the causes of this conflict.
With a biased media repeating the Israeli spin and blaming everything on Hamas, and showing a complete ignorance of the underlying reason for this conflict, it’s easy to see why Americans do not understand this new war. I do think, however, that most American do understand the basic laws of proportionality, and based on results of recent polls, I do have some hope that truth and justice in that conflict can lead to peace.
Now, we have heard the Palestinian side of the story; but we need to hear the other side of the story, don’t we? Link is for adults only.
http://palestinian.ning.com/...
Peace.