Misperceptions, the media, and the Iraq war.

Introduction

The Iraq war and its grim consequences led to a series of speculation on the authority and ability of the executive branch . The decision was widely criticized as no public support was sought before pursuing a full on military action in Iraq. Since the beginning, the Bush administration faced paramount challenges in an attempt to justify the decision of war. The primary challenge was that Iraq had not directly threatened the United States; neither any conflict of interest existed between them. The war was not approved by the Security Council of the United Nations.

As a consequence, a major argument was put forward by the Bush administration; Iraq was alleged of having weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The Bush administration asserted it was a potential threat to the safety of the United States. No evidence of the threat was found in the operation; but still the United States government made the public believe that Iraq was involved in the development of WMDs. A negative propaganda was also initiated that the (WMDs) were providing substantial support to Al-Qaida; a terrorist organization. The governmental agencies had ascertained that Al-Qaeda was behind the September 11th attacks. The challenge for Bush administration became intense in the later stages of the war when US forces overturned Saddam's regime and could not claim finding any weapons of mass destruction (Kull, et. al., pp. 570-78).

According to the pre and post war polls; a clear opposition was found among the masses on the United States decision to go on war. The governmental agencies of US had developed misperceptions among the masses by effectively utilizing the power of media. The present paper would intend to answer a series of questions on our topic:

Research Questions

Following are the different research questions that answered in the following paper;

How widespread are these misperceptions?

How have these misperceptions related to support the cause of war?

How the misperceptions were created, whether through the news from the print media or a particular television network played the role?

Do the Americans have any problem in paying attention to the news? If they pay more attention to the news of the media, does that help in reducing the misperception or it vary according to the sources of the news?

Discussion

Misperception

A number of misperceptions on the Iraq war surrounded the issue. On a whole, the American public did not suppor thte war and hence a number of ambiguities arose on the issue. One of the major causes of agitation was that no public approval was sought by the government on the war in Iraq. The US government acted smart and a majority of the population was lulled into believing that Iraq was directly involved in the September 11 attacks. It was also publicized that evidence of links between Al-Qaida and Saddam's administration had been found.

Similarly, the idea of weapons of mass destruction was portrayed in a manner that people started believing that WMDs would be used against ...