Count me in as one of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf's newest fans. After looking at the Iraqi Information Minister's stunning list of quotations from welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com, nobody could resist jumping on the bandwagon.
Some of the best:
"Their casualties and bodies are many."
"We're giving them a real lesson today. Heavy doesn't accurately describe the level of casualties we have inflicted."
"They can not read a compass...they are retarded."
If nothing else, you have to appreciate al-Sahaf's ability to come up with impromptu lines so ridiculous that only he could deliver them without laughing. In another lifetime, born under different circumstances, this guy might be remembered alongside Brando and Pacino instead of Saddam Hussein.
In any case, the existence of such a media dynamo that works for the enemy poses unique problems. After all, our leaflet-dropping and radio broadcasts indicate that the government has seen the importance of winning the propaganda war as well as the real one.
Still, military victory does have its advantages. In particular, the U.S. propaganda machine took complete advantage of its victory in Baghdad to stage one of the most telling events of the war.
Nobody would dispute the power of the images the media beamed back to us when a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in the center of Baghdad. Those images painted the American military as the great liberator it claimed to be.
However, as al-Sahaf would be the first to tell you, appearances can be deceiving. While his remarks about U.S. military failure are absurd, our attempts to show the world that we have won the hearts and minds of Iraqis might be equally so.
In truth, photographs of Fardus Square (where the statue toppling occurred) taken at a distance reveal no more than 200 Iraqis actually attended this great moment in their struggle for liberation.
Do you remember hearing "weapons of mass destruction" before the war? I seem to recall hearing Bush and company uttering those words a great deal while justifying a preemptive strike on Iraq. However, we haven't heard those words so much anymore.
Now, this could be due to an unexpected wave of modesty come over the Bush administration. His inspectors could have had so much success finding the weapons they claimed Iraq had developed that they would be embarrassed to admit it.
Then again, maybe they haven't found a shred of evidence to support their principle reason for invasion, thereby creating the need to come up with a new one. What reason sounds better than liberation?
Eventually, they'll probably find some weapons. In the meantime, Bush absolutely needed those images to shore up world opinion and maintain the moral high ground above those who opposed invasion.
And if this kind of wholesale manipulation isn't enough, one has to wonder why, given that they love us so much, we aren't doing more to help our new Iraqi buddies.
Looting is rampant, museums are being destroyed, hospitals decimated, and our military has done virtually nothing to quell the situation it created.
The Special Forces will help the Iraqis when they are creating images we need to sell back home. To help them survive is another story.
Maybe al-Sahaf has the right idea. Don't tell little lies; tell big ones. Say things brazenly and boldly enough, and some people just might believe you. Sadly, many people around the world have fallen for the same ploy, just under a different purveyor.
In war, truth is always the first casualty.
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Benjamin Thelen is a philosophy and political science senior. Reach him at benjamin.thelen@asu.edu.
