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?
No, Americans don’t even care about genocide now
A bunch of boomers, Gen Xers and older millennials definitely wouldn’t have cared about Iraq twenty years ago even with Twitter or Tik Tok
The Abu Ghraib photos are just as horrific as anything coming out of Gaza now and it didnt change anything
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.
Maybe, a little. Fahrenheit 911 had closeup footage of a city being bombed, and it blew me away. Nonstop news footage of planes taking off and landing on aircraft carriers really sanitized what was happening.
If smart phones of today AND social media platforms of today existed, maybe public opinion might have turned a bit sooner than it did.
But once you’ve got the blood machine going, it really doesn’t matter what anybody’s opinion is. Momentum will take it pretty far.
Smart phone documentation of the photo op “Special Forces Raid Hospital to Rescue Captured Soldier Jessica Lynch” would have blown that bullshit up way sooner.
Shit, it would have been hilarious if I had been recording the Sergent and Lieutenant fumble around trying to unjam a Mk-19 automatic grenade launcher in the dark after me telling them it was stupid fucking idea to try to “hammer it out from the front of the barrel with a cleaning rod”. The video is just me jogging farther and farther away from them towards a firefight with the camera pointed back at them waiting for the flash and bang.
The mercs running rampant might have been something that could have actually got some traction though. Wouldn’t have stopped the US occupation but it might have made it harder for the mercs to operate. It took years before there was enough international support/produced evidence of what the private contractors were doing.
Bush would have been re-elected, I’m 99% sure. If somebody else got elected, they would have kept the occupation going one way or another.
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?
I mean, there was the Abu Ghraib prison that the soldiers doing the war crimes were documenting and sharing among themselves that didn’t do much to 1)keep the psychos excited and 2) the anti war folks repulsed. Didn’t stop anything though.
I doubt it. People all over the world have smartphones and Americans are still bloodthirsty.
Americans seem slightly less bloodthirsty than in 2003 though. Back then it was completely unthinkable to advocate against war. The two national opinions were kill all Muslims immediately or kill all Muslims gently. Nowadays there seems much more nuance and a lot more difference in opinion, which is good. But I’d say that’s more to do with a fraying country with less of a monoculture. I guess smartphones are part of that but people’s conditions post 2008 are probably a bigger aspect.
