Propaganda_Corporal_Tillman

Propaganda is the creation and distribution of information and misinformation with the intention of either aiding or damaging a group, person or a cause.  While not a necessity, often times propaganda consists of a distortion of the truth. While it can be created for many reasons, people generally think of propaganda as it relates to politics and governance.  In this type of propaganda there are usually at least two groups producing propaganda, the government and the government's opposition.  Sometimes the government has allies, and sometimes they have more than one opponent, but generally the propaganda can fall into two categories, "pro-government" and "anti-government." Often the truth surrounding a issue of public interest can be damaging to the government's claims and objectives and can damage political will and public trust.  Ironically, to save this trust, they will sometimes lie.  Some governments are better at propaganda than others, and some are blatant about its production and others are surreptitious, however everybody does it.  It is a feature of modern government. Governments create propaganda to generate public support for many different reasons, ranging from passing legislation, going to war, and overthrowing democracy itself (consider the case of Peron's Argentina or Hitler's Germany).  Recently President Obama staged a press release where he announced there is going to be a final vote on health care legislation.  While he spoke about the need to have a final vote, he was surrounded by men and women in lab coats that appeared to be doctors. This is an example of mild propaganda, where facts are not being distorted, however our government is guilty of much manipulative and dishonorable propaganda.  Consider the case of Jessica Lynch. Jessica Lynch is a former Private First Class in the US Army during the invasion of Iraq under the second Bush administration.  She enlisted in the Army in the aftermath of September 11th and was deployed in Iraq only to be captured on March 23rd, 2003.  She served faithfully and was captured after her unit took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of an improved ambush.  She suffered several injuries as a result of the accident that ensued from the ambush.  When attempting to return fire, her firearm jammed, and she was captured with five other members of her unit after eleven were killed in the firefight.  She was taken to a hospital where she was treated for her injuries.  She was rescued after heroic actions by Iraqi hospital workers who shielded her from Iraqi interrogation and the noble efforts of Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief, who provided US intelligence with maps, video surveillance, and patrol information that led to her rescue on April 1st, 2003. Her story was clipped and embellished by White House and Army reports to make her out to be a national hero capable of standing a chance against Rambo himself.  The government and her biographer misreported many aspects of her capture.  They changed the story so much that if she read reports about her ordeal with her name blacked out, she would not recognize it as an account her own ordeal.  She stated plainly that her weapon jammed and she was unable to fire at enemy combatants, however that was omitted and the press release indicated she was fighting to the moment of capture.  Additionally, the government reported that she was tortured during her treatment at the hospital, which according to hospital staff and Lynch herself is a blatant lie.  Her biographer insisted in adding an account of her being raped as a captive which did not happen.  He claims he added the story against her will because people need to know what can happen to women in the Army. Despite the government being aware that their official account was not accurate, they proceeded to make her into a national hero.  They detailed what our soldiers are capable of, and how brutal the enemy is, when in fact, Lynch could not return fire because of a weapon malfunction, and the enemy treated her with humanity.  They flipped the meaning of the story entirely in order provide the public with a positive message to our mind off bad news coming from Iraq and to persuade us that we can win the war against oppression.  This is not the only example of the government creating national heroes out of misrepresentation and deception. Corporal Patrick Tillman was a rising American football player on the road to stardom when he left the sport to join the US Army Rangers to support his country and his brother despite his personal belief that the invasion of Iraq was 'illegal'.  He declined a 3 year, $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the Army.  He completed his Ranger initiation in 2002 and participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  He was redeployed in Afghanistan, only to be killed during what was eventually called a friendly-fire exchange that resulted from an improvisational explosive device (IED) in 2004.  He was shot three times in the head, probably from a US issued M240 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). The Army's cover-up of the incident began immediately, and possibly by fellow squad members or  by the squad that was responsible for Tillman's death.  His journal was found scorched and evidence was missing and tampered with, making culpability difficult to assign. This was only the beginning.  During the passing year, it was known by upper military brass that friendly-fire was likely the cause of the Tillman's death, yet they ordered soldiers from his unit to lie about the incident to his family and reporters.  Evidence eventually surfaced that Tillman's death was possibly the result of murder, or fragging, yet the government impeded the investigation and did not officially acknowledge it as a possibility.  Tillman was awarded the silver star, the purple heart, and a posthumous promotion, even though the army was aware that he died as a result of friendly fire.  They were covering up their mistakes.  They did not want to be seen as responsible for accidentally (or intentionally) killing America's poster-child and instead turned him into a hero. Immediately after the exchange, troops on the ground recognized it to be a friendly-fire incident, however it took until 2008 for the government to issue a report acknowledging the misinformation that was reported by the government in 2004.  This report was splotchy and plagued by the upper brass's apparent memory failings resulting from their inability to recall events from 2004. The unfortunate and untimely death of Corporal Tillman and the ensuing political maneuvering by the US government is a clear example of propaganda.  They distorted facts regarding the death of a popular soldier among the public to turn him into a war hero that died in the blaze of battle, when in fact he was killed either fratricide or murder.  The former is excellent for recruiting, while the latter can singlehandedly lower Army recruitment. While the propaganda of the government in both of these cases can be rationally explained, and defended as 'necessary evils' of war, they can also still be called dishonorable.  Unfortunately, governance is not always honorable, and propaganda can be used to support morally questionable causes.  Whether you agree with the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan is irrelevant when you consider public support of our troops.  Both of these stories were distorted so that the public will support our troops  and despite the dishonesty, deception is sometimes necessary when conducting foreign wars that depend on public polls.