Rushing, Josh, “FreeThoughtManifesto.” [Spin: The Art of Selling War.] Blogger. 26 December. 2007. (http://freethoughtmanifesto.blogspot.com/2007/12/spin-art-of-selling-war.html) 1 March. 2008.
Spin: The Art of Selling War
- “Less about the truth more about sales formula.”
The idea of this quote is that politics is all about advertising and propaganda they want to make sure that people buy their ideas and agree with them. The sale formula is the key source if you can sell what you want then everything is possible you can buy people into your ideology. This quote surely raises a question, which is are our leaders more of an advertising figure where they try to convince us on different political events. This quote here does relate to my topic, which is changing perceptions and leading in wars. If it’s less about the truth and more about the sales formula then wars will always occur no matter what because all you need is reasons.
- Same Phrases coming from Presidents like “Protecting U.S. Citizens”
Over the years Presidents have claimed and have used phrases like “Protecting U.S. Citizens” to lead Americans to Wars whether it was Vietnam War or Iraq war. Reasons are enough to lead to war. Such as “We Fight humanely” and saying we avoid killing civilians where are when bombs were thrown in Baghdad there were more civilians dead. Reasons are the key factors in leading to wars and changing the perceptions one other effective quote used by American government is “If we don’t fight them there, we’ll have to fight them here.” This was mostly used after 9/11 when Iraq was attacked. If we don’t act fast they will attack us just like Pearl Harbor. Selling War is easy thing to do but takes a lot of reasoning to buy someone into it just like Bush Administration did by buying to American public into the war in Iraq as revenge to 9/11
- Selling War is demonizing the enemy comparing Saddam with Hitler.Another way of selling war and changing perceptions of the people is to demonize the enemy such as comparing Hitler to Saddam to generate support for the war in Iraq. I believe that this idea works and it is true. Because when you try to demonize your enemy you try to create an image of that person into something totally different and when for example American public sees it they see what the government is trying to show them rather than seeing them through a clear lens. Demonizing your enemy has worked in the past and has worked in war with Iraq.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hi Harman. I hope you get the chance to watch this documentary. Watching the film will be primary research whereas quoting people talking about the film is secondary research. I think you will get more out of the film if you watch it…Anyway, a good questions that comes up when I read your research above is How did the US government sell the Iraq War? One main way you can argue is by painting Muslims as “terrorists,” which might lead into discussion of who is the real “terrorist.” Anyway…if you kind of start your argument there, you can almost begin with an analysis of the editorial cartoon you analyzed in first unit.
Hey Laurie I agree… I was thinking of starting my paper with the war in Iraq and how preceptions on Muslims played a role to generate the War in Iraq to get support. And then i will go into analyzing the term “Terrorist” and who is “Terrorist” and based on my research i will develope certain points on how if someone is a terrorist how they become a terrorist what leads it….and other points like how we can eliminate terrorism….
Sounds good. Remember, though, don’t try to accomplish too much in one 10-12 page essay. Don’t try to save the world on paper. Just try to help us understand how our perspectives on terrorism might be distorted and why….Go deep rather than skip along the surface trying to accomplish too many rhetorical purposes….