Public Relations Preparations For 2003 Invasion Of Iraq
In late 2001, with the Pentagon's focus on information warfare as an integral facet of the American war doctrine increasing, the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence was formed. This office was created with a mandate to propagandize throughout the Middle East, Asia and Western Europe, with the help of the Rendon Group, a Washington, DC based public relations firm with close ties to the US government, and which had had a prominent role in promoting the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group of Iraq exiles. In February 2002, amid a backlash of public outcry resulting from a New York Times article, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed he lacked knowledge of the program and the OSI was closed down. The contract with the Rendon Group, however, continued.
In January 2003, President George W. Bush formally announced "the creation of a White House 'Office of Global Communications' to broadcast the United States' message worldwide ahead of possible war on Iraq,"; the office had been effectively operating for several months prior. According to the White House, the office was to disseminate the policies of the U.S. Government to media sources, domestic and foreign, and send "teams of communicators to international hot spots, areas of media interest." With the new office having a similar mission to the now-defunct OSI, many skeptics questioned its legitimacy.
Read more about Public Relations Preparations For 2003 Invasion Of Iraq: Government Statements That Set The Stage For War, Success of The Public Relations Campaign
Famous quotes containing the words public, relations, preparations and/or invasion:
“The approval of the public is to be avoided like the plague. It is absolutely essential to keep the public from entering if one wishes to avoid confusion. I must add that the public must be kept panting in expectation at the gate by a system of challenges and provocations.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)
“As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity ... of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.”
—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)