War, Media, & Representations

C. Michael ElavskyWeek 6

History and representations

“Those who do not learn from history

are

doomed to repeat it”George Santayana The Life of Reason (1905)

Bringing It All Back Home (1) ASKING QUESTIONS and CONNECTING THE DOTS

“We tell ourselves what we need to. Stories that hide what we can’t bear to know. To make sense of what we’ve done. A truth to believe in. To hide in. A black and white world. Right and wrong. No questions. No gray. ….. It was kill or be killed. They weren’t human.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mutilation_of_Japanese_war_dead Weingartner, James J., Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941-

1945 , Pacific Historical Review, 61:1 (1992:Feb.) p.53

The Military and the MediaProchnau, W. (2005). In Overholser, G. and Hall J. K. (Eds.) The Press.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.310-331.

The difficult relationship between the US media and the US military across history Struggle of the press for access vs. the struggle for the government to maintain

security/control How changes in technology have increased the impact of reporting on war and the

military’s strategies to counteract these developments Packaging wars is a natural function of governments; the unpackaging of them a natural

function of the media A paradox: the press and military joust to maintain democracy and its practices; war brings this

paradox and its contradictions into stark relief Since history underscores the war-like nature of the US, and the changing nature of war itself, it

is all the more necessary that the media remain vigilant in its role as a check to governmental power and its interests in fomenting new conflicts

http://www.iwojima.com/bond/index.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29410258/ http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/pentagon-falsehoods-heroes-challenged/story?id=3071701

Pearl Harbor The naval strike was intended to neutralize the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and hence protect Japan's

advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, where Japan sought access to natural resources such as oil and rubber.

In 1940, following Japan's invasion of French Indochina and under the authority granted by the Export Control Act, the United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline, which was perceived by Japan as an unfriendly act.[10]

Following Japanese expansion into French Indochina, the U.S. ceased oil exports to Japan in July 1941, in part because of new American restrictions on domestic oil consumption. Preliminary planning for an attack on Pearl Harbor to protect the move into the "Southern Resource Area" (the Japanese term for the Dutch East Indies and Southeast Asia generally) had begun in very early 1941.

The McCollum memo, (Eight Action Memo) was a memorandum, dated October 7, 1940 (more than a year before the Pearl Harbor attack, sent by Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum, who "provided the president with intelligence reports on [Japan]... [and oversaw] every intercepted and decoded Japanese military and diplomatic report destined for the White House" [1]) in his capacity as director of the Office of Naval Intelligence's Far East Asia section. The memo recommended an eight-part course of action for the United States to take in regards to the Japanese Empire in the South Pacific, suggesting that the United States provoke Japan into committing an "overt act of war". The memo illustrates that several people in the Office of Naval Intelligence promoted the idea of goading Japan into war: "It is not believed that in the present state of political opinion the United States government is capable of declaring war against Japan without more ado [...] If by [the elucidated eight-point plan] Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better."

5:32 am, March 4th 2006

Bringing It All Back Home (2) “When we get our orders, we don’t sort of sit around and

debate them, y’know. We go. We get our orders from the President and Congress and there’s no discussion. We go. They have an agenda and we answer to it. They only answer to the American people. And, I’m sorry but they are too stupid for me to trust them with my life. Mark my words: we’re going back in cause they aren’t done. I know that agenda. I’ve implemented it. And I’m not going to be onboard for that.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century http://www.gulfweb.org/bigdoc/report/riegle1.html http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0908-08.htm

Buying the War

Dynamics of American Society The Military Industrial Complex Bamford, J. (2005, November). The Man Who Sold the War. Rolling Stone.

Retrieved August 21, 2007 from RollingStone.com.Stable URL: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war

American “Rationale” Myths, “Memories” and Messages

Why We Fight The Spoils of War: future markets & ulterior motives

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2003/11/k-street-tigris http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/

WarMeansAWindfallForCEOs.aspx

Costs and Benefits Principles and Practices

Why We Fight http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682

The Role of the Media

“The Public Sphere”(An Alternative Perspective)

US Military Troops and Bases around the world http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=884

737 Military Bases = global empire http://www.alternet.org/story/47998/

14 `enduring bases' set in Iraq; Long-term military presence planned http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040323-enduring-bases.htm Http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm

  A different take on US history http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

  “Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple …. Your forces occupy our countries; you

spread your military bases throughout them; you corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctities, to protect the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of our treasures ….” Excerpt from A Letter to America, written by Osama Bin Laden. Published in The Guardian in the UK (among numerous sources around the globe in several languages). Full text can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver

Why you may not have heard about it and its implications for America?

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security”

Ben Franklin

“Support the Troops”

The Dynamics of our SocietyOur “News” ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/17/politics.uk

Our “Democracy” ? http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1565364,00.html

Our “democratically-informed populace” ? http://edition.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/05/02/geog.test/index.html http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/238.php?ni

d=&id=&pnt=238&lb=brusc

The Media Pundits http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2842

The Right to Question?Costs and BenefitsWays and Means

Cabal vs.The Way It Is Military industrial Complex/IBM Pat Tillman/Jessica Lynch

Veteran’s Affairs http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-mackinnon/admit-it-we-dont-really-t_b_345647.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801712.html http://dir.salon.com/topics/mark_benjamins_veterans_reporting/ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/us/08vets.html http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/2006/02/national-veterans-foundation.html http://www.dickphillipsonline.com/CNN_SSGKrause.wmv http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/11/mip.monday/index.html http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57454

Citizenship and Service Empathy/Meaning/Responsibility