In Iraq, the main idea at the begining of the war seemed to be scare the Iraqi people and military. We dropped millions of propaganda pamphlets in the idea that they would see how they could in no way win the war and to not fight. With the united states being so much more technilogicaly advanced, I was expecting something more exciting. Since Iraq seems to lack in the television industry, I think we should have taken advantage of that. Why didn’t we take over tv stations and start showing the clone army from Sar Wars saying that we were getting ready for war? Would they know that isnt really our troops? It seems like that would scare them a lot more than a piece of paper. Why dont we use hollywood to our advantage?
The Army is currently broadcasting lots of propagands on radio stations in Iraq. They’re also dropping wind-up radios that are tuned to onyl one frequency. One reason the coalition hasn’t taken over Iraqi TV is that the transmitters are in Baghdad and Baghdad has not been invaded yet. And as you’ve seen over the past few days every time we blow up their transmitter they seem to put a new one up pretty quickly.
Also, it seems to me that the main point of the propagands thus far hasn’t necessarily been to scare the Iraqis, but to convince them to surrender because they will be treated well and let go once Iraq is free.
Another point: as you can see from the posts here and on other boards, people have varied and unusual reactions to efforts to impress them with a particular set of facts.
Is bombing the TV station violating the Geneva Convention?
Wouldn’t that also mean that not that many people have/watch TV in the first place? Propaganda doesn’t help much if nobody sees it. That’s why pamphlets and radio are valuable: If nothing else, folks can listen to the pre-tuned radios we’re bringing in.
And what would be the advantage in showing footage of a faked army? If word of that got out (which it would), the propaganda would work in the other direction, and besides, our real army is quite large enough to kick a lot of butt. So show pictures of the real thing. Or better yet, forget about the pictures: They’re going to see the real thing in person before they get a chance to surrender, anyway.