The dynamics of how the United States government drums up support for its wars were examined from a highly critical perspective in a documentary shown at the Muddy Cup coffeehouse at 305 Main St. in Poughkeepsie on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 12. Hosted by the Dutchess Peace Coalition, the showing of “War Made Easy,” which featured author and media critic Norman Solomon and was narrated by actor Sean Penn, was part of that organization’s ongoing efforts to express its own opposition to America’s foreign conflicts and to mobilize opposition to them.
“War Made Easy” opens with footage of the ecstatic celebrations across America that greeted the news that Japan had surrendered in August of 1945, and of Gen. Douglas McArthur expressing his hopes at the surrender ceremony which followed in September that the peace would be a lasting one. A succession of images from the many wars which followed – Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq – quickly showed that it was not, and it is the filmmaker’s contention that not only were they unnecessary wars, but that the public was deluded by artful propaganda techniques into believing that they were necessary.
“Rarely if ever does a war just fall down from the sky,” asserts Solomon, who is the only person seen speaking to the camera in a contemporary interview setting throughout the documentary. “A foundation has to be made, a case has to be laid down. The public face of these wars has not reflected the complexity of the issues involved.”
From here the film settles down into a steady pattern, with Solomon listing and explaining what he feels are the recurring techniques used to “sell” these wars, followed by footage which illustrates his viewpoint. Chief among these elements held to be common to the propaganda of American war are: a selective narrative of events; fear-based appeals; comparing the enemy leader to Hitler; claims of American selflessness; claims that the chief end of the war is peace.
Having examined the public face of war from the government end, the documentary then moves to demonstrate how the media is co-opted into “selling” these narratives.
Deploring “deep patterns of media avoidance,” Solomon asserts that war reporting is often hostage to official sources. When these sources are proved to be wrong, as were the United States government’s assertions that there were weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, journalists blame the government for their own failure to do independent reporting.
“Particularly in the early stages of a conflict, news coverage looks like P.R.,” Solomon says. This is characterized in his view by a jingoistic, loud tone, especially on television, and such subsidiary aspects of reporting as an idolatry of high tech weaponry, accompanied by what he calls “an acculturated callousness as to what happens at the other end of U.S. weapons.” At this point in the film viewers see footage of children killed by American bombing in Afghanistan during the early stages of the war against the Taliban.
In a particularly memorable image of a reporter getting the facts wrong because he has been carried away by patriotic fervor, Ted Koppel of “Nightline” is seen in a flak jacket reciting the words “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,” saying that they come from Shakespeare’s “Henry V”, though they are in fact from “Julius Ceasar.” The film however, does not make this correction.
Solomon asserts that the American public loses support for a war when it can’t be won quickly, and it later emerges that the case for it was based on deception. But by then, he says, the damage is done.
“When it comes to life and death, the truth comes out too late,” he says.
Images make case
“War Made Easy” raises a number of points that are worthy of public reflection and debate. It shows a plethora of memorable images of the conflicts of the last 60 years, and conveys such useful – and objectively true – information, such as the fact that the percentage of civilian casualties in wartime deaths has been steadily rising for a century: World War I: 10 percent, World War II: 50 percent, Vietnam: 70 percent, Iraq: 90 percent.
Yet the film is marred by its overwhelmingly one-sided viewpoint, and its unwillingness to consider the possibility that a democratic superpower with many enemies might indeed at some point have to take military action, such as after America was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. This feeling of having one line of negative analysis constantly hammered at the viewer is epitomized by the fact that Solomon is the only interviewee.
Yet the film was a hit with the mostly middle-aged and elderly crowd who showed up to see it, many of whom shouted encouragement to things that were said by Solomon, or shouted against President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney when TV clips of them were shown.
“It really did a good job in exposing the constant media barrage that accompanied the opening of the Iraq war,” said Susan Nagel of Rhinebeck.
“The majority of Americans are against this war,” said Carolann Koehler of Poughkeepsie. “The newscasters have reported that. But the government only thinks ‘What is the next step in this war?’ They ignore us.”
Fred Nagel of the Dutchess Peace Coalition states that his group hopes to be showing documentaries once a month at the Muddy Cup and other local venues. Information on upcoming events can be found on their Web site, www.DutchessPeace.org.