So...
Today is the day when the 2003 invasion of Iraq reached a milestone in its long journey.
9 April 2003, US took control of the capital city Baghdad.
The photograph which made to the front-pages of almost every other news-paper in the world the next day was the photograph showing the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue.
The 12 meter high statue was built in April 2002 to honor Saddam on his 65'th birthday.
In the media, the event was published as follows....
When a bunch of local Iraqis could not take down the statue,once the city was captured, a US armored vehicles was instrumental in toppling the statue. The media coverage shows photographs with a considerable crowd cheering and celebrating the fall of Saddam's regime.
The event and photograph became a symbol for the fall of Saddam. Interestingly, most of the Arab world had been thinking of Iraq having upper hand in the war till then.
But later it was claimed that the scenes as were made to appear, were different.
The photograph of people celebrating was said to have been modified and crowd was added digitally to make it look bigger. The supposed "locals" who tried taking the statue down and later celebrated were in fact brought down from other places by the military. Just to give a bigger appearance to the whole event.
US Army's Psychological Operations division is said to have been involved in setting things up. Yeah, they have such division. In layman's terms, they are the one's who take control of the propaganda once the US military has taken over. Wikipedia- "The purpose of United States psychological operations (PSYOP) is to induce or reinforce behavior favorable to US objectives"
9 April 2003, US took control of the capital city Baghdad.
The photograph which made to the front-pages of almost every other news-paper in the world the next day was the photograph showing the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue.
The 12 meter high statue was built in April 2002 to honor Saddam on his 65'th birthday.
In the media, the event was published as follows....
When a bunch of local Iraqis could not take down the statue,once the city was captured, a US armored vehicles was instrumental in toppling the statue. The media coverage shows photographs with a considerable crowd cheering and celebrating the fall of Saddam's regime.
The event and photograph became a symbol for the fall of Saddam. Interestingly, most of the Arab world had been thinking of Iraq having upper hand in the war till then.
But later it was claimed that the scenes as were made to appear, were different.
The photograph of people celebrating was said to have been modified and crowd was added digitally to make it look bigger. The supposed "locals" who tried taking the statue down and later celebrated were in fact brought down from other places by the military. Just to give a bigger appearance to the whole event.
US Army's Psychological Operations division is said to have been involved in setting things up. Yeah, they have such division. In layman's terms, they are the one's who take control of the propaganda once the US military has taken over. Wikipedia- "The purpose of United States psychological operations (PSYOP) is to induce or reinforce behavior favorable to US objectives"
