There’s no doubt a key driver behind opposition to the Gaza massacre, especially among normie types, has been the footage from smartphones showing the mass destruction and casualties.
Hypothetically, if the War in Iraq occurred with 2023 smartphone technology, how would this have impacted public opinion?
Would Bush have been re-elected in 2004?
Also, for historians of the war, is there a particular atrocity during the war that has been documented by activists or watchdogs but has limited photographic evidence, that had it been recorded by smartphone, could have single-handedly turned the tide of public opinion?
Not in the slightest. Having lived through the war on Iraq, the pro-nato war jingoism is just as bad if not worse today. Consent for war and xenophobia is much easier to manufacture today, than it was then, since nowadays US tech companies control the attention of a much larger audience.
Twitter would be full the same color revolution atrocity propaganda like it is now, like
SADDAM HAS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
SADDAM HAS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
SADDAM HAS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
People living in Xinjiang and journalist visitors, have posted videos and articles for years now refuting zenz’s claims of genocide. Muslim countries, that would be burdened with a refugee crisis, all are saying the same, that there is no genocide. None of it has any effect, evidence from a german white supremacist evangelical who doesn’t speak chinese gets pushed via british state media organs and western social media, confirming the orientalist / racist biases of their audience.
The propaganda machine is much more efficient today.
I think definitely. I know a few people who in the first days of the genocide were very “well it’s complicated and the history and it’s just too much for me to understand” that now are 100% pro Palestine, and when I ask them why, every single one of them says “I am tired of seeing dead Palestinian children on TikTok it’s such a shame what’s happening to them.” We never saw dead Iraqi children on TikTok because we didn’t have TikTok. The propaganda machine can’t really excuse the live footage that folks are taking out of Gaza, there’s only so much talking past the conflict that you can do when there is easily available video evidence every single day of the genocide.
Yes, Israel and the US is trying to keep a lid on information, but it is extremely hard. In the Iraq war days, the only information came from US-vetted sources, there were basically no journalists with any kind of media access on the Iraqi side and even if they were, they had no means to get the videos out to the general population. That is also why the US can claim very low direct casualties of the early invasion, there is just no way to tell.
No.
There was plenty of evidence… look at the collateral murder videos, and that big intersection that Blackwater shot up.
Probably not. Normies will just send smug groypers to any Iraqis posting about it because “trolololol U MAD BRO!?!?”
The invasion of Iraq was literally broadcast on every news channel during prime time slots. It was scheduled specifically for that time, to make it as flashy and cool as possible. Americans reveled in the destruction.
So, no.
