J 301F Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Gulf War, Dick Cheney, Al-Qaeda
9/29/16
MTTS: 9/11 Failing the American Public
• Joualist’s falteed he tig to ase the fifth W eleat to 9/: Why did terrorists attack the
World Trade Center and Pentagon?
• That missing information was essential not only for people to understand the event, but also help them
decide how their country should respond to the attacks.
• The es edia’s failue to ise to the hallege i giig the puli otet aseig the h question
with an understanding of a number of complex and multifaceted international issues and historical
relationships, and the information about the cultural and religious differences that were related to those
issues and relations.
• This resulted in a itial ass of the Aeia puli aeptig Bush’s eas-to-understand, blatantly one-
dimensional, simplistic, and politically driven answer to justify leading the country into the Iraq War.
Mainstream Journalism Answers the First Four Ws
• The Times documented the human dimensions of the tragedy in vivid detail.
• The Post also asked the questions about why the US intelligence community had been caught off-guard.
• TV es as aaded fo thei effots to poide oeage aout he disaste itself, eegey efforts,
ad the ogoig hua daa of liig i a it ude siege.
• Despite the praise and awards receive, the fact remains that no one in the news world told their readers
or viewers what specific grievances had motivated bin Laden and his operatives.
The White House Answers the Fifth W
• Bush had an ability to transform complex issues into black and white terms which attributed to the
pesidet’s politial suess.
• Brush used his speech hours after the attack to initiate what would prove to be a highly effective
campaign to pain the war on terrorism as a broad initiative that would target an amorphous entity that he
laeled the the gloal teo etok.
• Bush ade o etio of i Lade’s itiiss of Aeia foeig poli.
• The out’s leadig es ogaizatios did’t poit out the pesidet’s failue to atiulate i Lade’s
grievances. They simply echoed the same message the president was sending.
The Internet Takes a Leap Forward
• Many people were not satisfied with what they read and saw in the mainstream media, so they turned to
the Iteet to ase the h.
• People foud i Lade’s Jihad Agaist Jes ad Cusades a aifesto hih ade it lea that i
Laden saw himself not as an evil terrorist but as a heroic defender of Muslims who wanted to fend off
what he believed was a Western invasion that threated his faith and culture much the way the Christian
Crusades had done some 900 years earlier.
• Bi Lade’s gieaes aodig to the aifesto:
o The most significant factor leading to the all fo ass ude as the Aeia ilita’s
continued presence on Arab soil.
o “eod, the U“ suppot of Isael. Bi Lade elieed that Aeia’s log-term strategy was to
make Israel the dominant power in the Middle East, at least partly to contol the egio’s oil
reserves.
o Third, bin Laden believed American targeted Iraq (more than 1 million Iraqis, most of them
civilians, had been killed) because Iraq had been the strongest country in the Arab world before
the Persian Gulf War, therefore the biggest obstacle the US faced in its quest to make Israel the
egio’s doiat foe.
• Many sits questioned the statements in the manifesto, for example many challenged the number of
casualties, estimating the Iraqi civilian and military casualties from the Gulf War at between 10,000 and
205,000.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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