How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The president said that our mission has been accomplished. But there are still guys getting killed, and Captain Miller said they were only counting guys who died on the spot.
"A lot of them are being rotated back to Germany or the States and might not make it down the road," she said. "And nobody's talking about the wounds over here. Blast wounds are terrible." (8.2-3)
The media picture of America's success in the war is far from the full one. Keeping the death count as low as possible makes the American side look good.
Quote #5
The coalition forces had won the hot war and the newscasts kept telling us that we were in the stabilizing and rebuilding phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but the situation was getting hairy. I couldn't understand what the Iraqis were about, or what they really wanted. The television coverage showed interviews with them, always men and usually, according to Jamil, Kurds, talking about how glad they were that Saddam Hussein was overthrown. It was Jonesy who had the question we all wanted to ask.
"If all the Racks are so happy with that we are doing over here, who the hell is shooting at us and laying out all the IEDs?" he asked. (11.28-29)
Good question, Jonesy. The news is broadcasting to people like Jonesy, who think of the Iraqi people as one single group. Jamil, an Iraqi, knows they're only showing the opinion of a small part of the population.
Quote #6
"I just wondered if they knew how many people are getting wounded here," Coles said. "I don't see any of that in the news at night."
"That's because we're still in a war zone," the chaplain answered. "Do we really want to broadcast everything we know?" (12.69-70)
The reasons for showing media propaganda are pretty complicated. Anything that Americans see, the enemy also can access. And it's helpful to have the enemy to think the American side is doing just fine.