WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception [2004] (Region 1) (NTSC) [DVD] [US Import]

This is an excellent documentary showing how the Bush administration cowed, seduced and used the media to sell the Iraqi war to the American public. It is also an indictment of the media for its failure to accurately report the news during the build up to the war and during the war itself. The media, from the lofty New York Times to the unfair and unbalanced Fox News, bought hook, line and sinker the administration's tale of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and helped Bush and the neocons prepare the American public for the invasion. A nice piece of war-prep irony revealed in the DVD was the administration's disinclination to call the plan "Operation Iraqi Liberation" since that would have led to the unfortunate (and perhaps telling) anagram "OIL."

The media turned the war into a "militainment." Bottom line, the news networks stood to make mass bucks by covering the war, by playing it up in red, white and blue sets, and playing on the public's need to escape from the usual TV fare. Exciting graphics were designed by people who worked in the computer game industry. Curiously the rule, "if it bleeds, it leads" was suspended because there was way, way too much gore to show the public, especially while they were eating dinner; and anyway it would not serve the purposes of the administration to show all those dead and dying Iraqis (especially the children) smeared with blood and gaping wounds, nor ironically would it serve to show the maimed American troops. In fact, it would be considered down right unpatriotic to do so. (You'll recall the flap over photos of flag-covered coffins of dead American soldiers.) The war had to be sanitized and made palpable. Consequently what prevailed was "best bomb" footage showing really awesome explosions--buildings blown to bits, cars flying into the air as Rumsfeld enthused over "shock and awe." The fact that the shock and awe resulted in human casualties was very much beside the point. As has been said, "In war the first casualty is truth."

The tactic of "embedding" reporters with the military was a stroke of genius by the Bush administration because it ensured one-sided and biased reporting on the war. Being embedded (not precisely to say "in bed with") the young, idealistic American soldiers for weeks at time, being supported and protected by those soldiers and sharing their experiences forced the reporters to identify with the soldiers and to assume a similar point of view. As the documentary points out there was also some "Stockholm syndrome" psychology at work.

Sadly, the media swallowed the administration's disinformation about the never-found weapons of mass destruction without noticing that the primary justification for the war was a sham. There was also no link between Al Qaeda and the Saddam Hussein. Osama bin Laden hated the B'athist regime of Saddam Hussein almost as much as he hates Israel and the United States since Saddam Hussein is about as Islamic as say Rupert Murdoch. And of course Saddam Hussein had no use for bin Laden since he would be uncontrollable and dangerous to his regime. So that rationale was also a sham. The idea that we would be doing the people of Iraq a favor by getting rid of Saddam Hussein was also a sham because (1) any invasion would bring more misery to the people than the continued presence of Hussein; and (2) the Iraqis would rather be ruled by a dictator than be occupied by a foreign power (which is the case for practically any country in the world, including our own).

And finally the idea that by invading Iraq we would be fighting the war on terrorism (which became the administration's johnny come lately justification for the war) is not only a sham and a lie, but is actually counterproductive. The invasion of Iraq has been a setback in the war on terrorism, and actually a diversion from it. It could be argued that Bush invaded Iraq because after the invasion of Afghanistan he had no plan to go after Al Qaeda and so created a diversion--a very costly and stupid diversion.

The mainstream media failed not only as news sources, but editorially, and as news analysts. Like Bush and the neocons in the White House, the news media failed to look beyond "best bombs" and "shock and awe" and "mission accomplished" to the aftermath. The media also failed to educate the public on just how absurd the idea is that you can force democracy onto a mostly Islamic country, especially a country artificially formed from such diverse elements as the Shi'a, the Sunni and the Kurds. Furthermore, because the Shi'a are in the majority, even if a democracy is formed, it may be voted out with an Iranian style theocracy the likely result--not exactly what the White House had in mind. Another likely result is another dictatorship following a bloody civil war.

Director Danny Schechter also points to how the press was controlled and manipulated during White House press conferences. Any reporter who asked a tough question of the press secretary or the president would not be called upon again. In order words, the press conferences were (and largely still are) propaganda opportunities for the Bush administration.

It should never be forgotten that however mainstream or "liberal" or enlightened the individual reporter may or may not be, it doesn't matter because the media is controlled by conglomerate interests (think Rupert Murdoch) that own the stations, magazines and newspapers, and those guys are conservative and want support for their man in the White House, and they will not long tolerate anything else.

Question: with the consolidation of media into fewer and fewer hands, are we witnessing the beginning of the death of a free press in the United States?

very good film. Similar but even better to john pilger's the war you don't see.

Film shows how the media completly failed in its duty to acurately and fairly report what was going on in Iraq. However, the devastation being caused in Iraq can only be positively spun for so long.

We see the same in Libya now (have we learnt nothing?) and wherever the government are planning to spend millions bombing next- whilst at the same time telling people there is no money for the desperately needed services that children and adults rely upon in Britain.

A very flimsy poor quality opinion on a very important issue - as always Dumbed Down in the style of the mass media to dupe the unsuspecting public into believing the lie that has and still is putting peoples lives at risk, both `our boys' out there as well as the Iraqi people themselves. It falls into all the usual traps of media-hyped hysteria - but then the Hollywood and Biased Broadcasting Corporation multinationals would want us to believe in their very own very grey world of sound-bites, puppet personalities and `rolling news' misinformation, without any assistance to allow the viewers to make their own minds up - this is that same old broken record - sensationalism, without even a hint of depth.

It is just plain unimaginative to see the anagram `oil' everywhere as the previous reviewer implied the left would see it - rather like seeing a human face in almost anything vaguely perceptible. This poor `documentary' spoof fails the unsuspecting viewer at almost every sickening turn, with no mention or attempt to explain the support for Israel (which has no `oil'), or the links between Saddam's party & the Nazis, the nuclear-sized detonation (measuring on the Richter scale) in the West Iraqi desert, the chemical weapons used against the Kurds, the environmental destruction (remember the Kuwaiti oilfields / gulf of Persia pollution / draining of the Marsh Arab lands etc. etc.), mass torture, support for terrorism (Saddam allowed terrorist bases along the border with Iran, bankrolled and paid lip-service to external terrorists, freed criminals en masse when his time was approaching, as well as supporting foreign jihadists to set up shop at home for the same reason), or the true Mass Deception that France and Russia were benefiting under Saddam by way of Oil concessions in return for mass arms deals (witness the discovery of dozens of Mig & Mirage fighters buried in the sand - unearthed by coalition troops, etc.), as well as the fact that Saddam gave the Weapons Inspectors the run-around for so long (remember that?). Remember too the fact that the age-old sanctions themselves allowed the suffering and death of millions of ordinary Iraqis, whilst lining the pockets of unscrupulous bureaucrats and politicians. We must not forget that - whether or not weapons were found - such WMDs WERE used AND tested, and the laboratories WERE located - ready and able to resume their sinister work once the heat was off (once more). Condi Rice IS right to worry about the `smoking gun' - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (President of Iran) is close to obtaining nuclear weapons, and has stated that he wants to use the first one on Israel!! Israel has Nukes (since a long time), like us, but does not use them, nor does it threaten to use them (as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does) - otherwise the whole situation could be over in a very short time. Clearly the previous `reviewer' was half asleep whilst watching this offering - else he might not have so fully bought into the sham witnessed on this DVD by its very lack of scope.

Ok, so the previous reviewer is free to criticise Bush & Blair, or the US and UK political systems (thanks to the freedom offered by those very same people and systems) - but are we really expected to believe the media hype that these guys are worse than the mad Iranian who wants to `nuke the Zionists' or the bad dictator with links to fascism and fanaticism? The DVD notes the tentative links with the computer gaming industry but, as with this fool's docudrama, it fails to note the main cause of Iraqi death, past and present. It is the aim of the insurgents, people like Al Sadr, foreign Jihadists, & Iranian puppets to cause as much disruption as possible (to slow reconstruction, to take some of the heat off them, and ironically to prevent our forces from leaving sooner) and have their murderous tactics displayed by the all too willing global media - terrorism only works where it has a voice. The previous reviewer noted `it would not serve the purposes of the administration to show all those dead and dying Iraqis (especially the children) smeared with blood and gaping wounds, nor the maimed American troops' - no, leave that to the likes of Saddam, or those who film beheadings, and go play your video games if you must- the message on this DVD is perverse indeed. If you don't want `a sanitised version', if you really must see the real horrors of this war I suggest you obtain a copy of `Buried In The Sand - The Deception Of America' (also available from Amazon) - the mass-broadcast media, this DVD, will not show it, preferring to tackle the `easy' baddies like the calm, unassuming Rumsfeld, or caricature prone Bush & Blair, rather than the `rather more difficult' concepts and dangers of informing the masses about the true nature of the evil regimes the world currently faces. Perhaps such education would lead to mass panic or worse - the media would conspire against it as a `neocon' deception (one which would threaten their power base & comfort zone).

The West is restrained in its use of force (sometimes TOO restrained - look at Clinton's lack of action when MILLIONS of Africans were slaughtered - where were the Lefty OIL conspirators then?!), with tough rules of engagement, as well as a sincere desire NOT to harm the innocent, as compared to the enemy's desire to kill at any cost - with NO regard for innocent human life - perhaps because the enemy is either a terrorist by proxy (supported by neighbouring states with most to lose in the eventuality of a successful Independent, democratic, free Iraq), or else part of a retrograde militia (of people who `love death') led by irresponsible mullahs or Taliban-types with no real knowledge of their great religion, except insofar as they are able to manipulate it. So it is a common falsehood put forward on this DVD (thanks to the `unbiased' media) that (1) the intervention has in itself brought misery to the Iraqis - that is to do an injustice to the professionalism and morality of the allied troops - clearly it is the tactics of unscrupulous guns-for-hire militias, car-bombers, foreign Jihadists, and general thuggish law-breakers who are going out to cause misery for their own gain which causes misery for the Iraqis, NOT the security forces, police or military, trying (against almost all odds) to rebuild Iraq; and (2) If you think the Iraqis would actually prefer the murderous nazi regime of Saddam et. al. , then clearly you have never lived under such a regime, or even asked the Iraqis about it (see `Voices Of Iraq' - available on Amazon).

It is put on this DVD that fighting Saddam's regime of terror has worsened the situation, and that we are more unsafe now than before. Well, it may be very PC to say so, it may make you look like a nice peaceful kind of guy, but just go back to the early 1930s and think. Just take a while, and actually THINK. If you had tackled Hitler then, BEFORE he amassed his armies, you would have avoided the worst of World War 2. And sure, declaring war on terror, like declaring war on Hitler, makes the world SEEM more dangerous, but only because we are so much more AWARE of the inevitable task ahead. You may want to side with the producers of this DVD, the modern-day Hitlers, but for me & all sane individuals - freedom is worth fighting for, and such terror is worth fighting for the sake of generations to come (terror takes time to tackle and topple). Unless, of course, you've watched so much of the numbing 5-minute rolling news-entertainment, that you just can't bear anything requiring an attention span any longer than that.