Memo: When War Is A Rush
by Norman Solomon
Dissident Voice
January 22, 2003
To: Washington's
most powerful people
OK, let's review the main points.
A basic PR problem remains. While you're in a hurry to launch an all-out war on Iraq, the main obstacle is that a large majority of Americans don't feel the rush. Uncle Sam's usual carrots and sticks have a long way to go at the U.N. Security Council. The big disappointment of January is that some key allies haven't caved yet.
No need to
belabor the recent polling numbers. Newsweek did a national sampling of opinion
midway through the month, and you went into a funk when you read the Associated
Press summary: "Most Americans want the United States to take more time
seeking a peaceful solution in Iraq rather than moving quickly into a military
confrontation."
The next
sentence was even more cautionary: "By 60 percent to 35 percent, people in
the Newsweek poll ... said they would prefer that the Bush administration allow
more time to find an alternative to war." And, what's more, "a
majority would be opposed should this country act without the support of the
United Nations and had no more than one or two allies."
But before you
panic at the specter of peace breaking out, take a long cold look at another
finding: "Support for a military option would be strong, 81 percent, if
the United States were to act with full allied support and the backing of the
U.N. Security Council." Such full support and backing is likely to be
unnecessary. At home, appreciable war fever is available for inflamation below
the surface, and an initial large majority of domestic public opinion will not
be needed to get the war job done.
It may be
possible to chip away at recalcitrant citizens by portraying the obstinate
allies as mischievous or worse. Some media coverage has been apt. A quiet cheer
is in order for your friends at The Washington Post, where strong editorial
support for a righteous war often runs parallel with news articles. When the
Post recently reported on its front page that France signaled plans to
"wage a major diplomatic fight, including possible use of its veto
power" on the Security Council, the newspaper informed readers that France
and other balking countries had just engaged in "a diplomatic version of
an ambush."
An undertone of
allied flirtation with treachery is a helpful media spin at a critical moment.
It provides a wisp of underdog status for American diplomats as they salvage
what support they can and preen themselves as courageous global visionaries --
a posture that can augur well for the aftermath to a State of the Union text
swaddling the president's war cries in oodles of lofty rhetoric.
The cabinet and
sub-cabinet heavy hitters naturally pile on with a renewed blitz of network
talk shows. One way or another, they explain that the USA's war train is
leaving the station, and other nations would do well to hop on board.
Not many pundits
emphasize that the war dealers in Washington have, as an ace in the hole, the
ability to begin large-scale bloodshed and then let the devil take the
hindmost. When warfare becomes a fait accompli -- with high-tech missiles
suddenly flying and with American soldiers killing and even dying -- the
public's numbers quickly shift away from antiwar sentiment (at least for a
while). It's not necessary to consolidate a supportive majority before war gets
rolling. It's sufficient to have enough people cowed and numbed so that
opposition to starting the war stays within tolerable bounds.
As thoroughly modern masters of war, you comprehend the captivating power of television to simultaneously mesmerize and anesthetize. Once the Pentagon's carefully screened video clips are streaming onto TV sets in wartime, a kind of intoxication sets in; the journalists seem to feel the rush, and they pass it along. The media pace is frenetic, with adrenalin pumping; the new conditions of carnage are exactly suitable to play to the U.S. government's unrivaled strength -- its capacity to inflict massive and overpowering violence. And, helped along by media spin, most people back home can be induced to revere the inevitable winner.
"A
conqueror is always a lover of peace," the Prussian general Karl von
Clausewitz remarked two centuries ago. The more you yearn to launch a war, the
more you must strive to burnish your image as someone who craves peace. On your
terms, of course.
Norman Solomon is co-author (with Reese Erlich) of Target
Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You, which will be published in late
January by Context Books. Email: mediabeat@igc.org