War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death

War Made Easy:
How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death

Narrated by Sean Penn
Featuring Norman Solomon

Exclusive World-Wide Internet Premier on AboveTopSecret.com

Narrated by Sean Penn and based on the work of media critic and best-selling author Norman Solomon, who traveled with Penn to Baghdad just before the war to call attention to the dangers of a U.S. invasion, WAR MADE EASY reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose 50 years of government spin and media collusion that has dragged our country into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. With remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, the documentary exposes how presidential administrations of both parties have relied on a combination of deception and media complicity to sell one war after another to the American people.

Giving special attention to parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, WAR MADE EASY sets government spin and media collusion from the present alongside virtually identical patterns from the past, guided by Solomon s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis. Rare footage of political leaders and journalists from the past includes Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer. According to Solomon, whose work has been praised by The Los Angeles Times as brutally persuasive, the positive attention the film has received may indicate a new willingness to counter years of pro-war media spin and government deception. These deep patterns of ongoing perception management must be demystified and decoded if we're going to move beyond the horrors of perpetual war, he said. The way War Made Easy is being embraced could be an important step in that direction.

An Official Selection of 2007 s International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and the 2007 Montreal and Vancouver International Film Festivals, WAR MADE EASY, directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, is an invaluable introduction to war propaganda and public relations that transcends partisan politics, and raises serious questions about the role of journalism and political communication in our society.










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Well done documentary on the usage of propaganda to further the war agenda. It is one of the simplest ways of engaging people to rally around the costs and hidden costs of war. Amazing how the tactics have not changed from the past to the present and the fact that people are still rallying round the sounds of the war cries is astounding. Do we not learn from the past?

There's an important disctinction to be made between commentary and propoganda. When somebody tells you what they think, they often have ot back it up with reasoning that comes from their own life experience. Propogandists don't do that. The 'spin,' which is meant to play on your emotions. They're after a short-term immediate reaction. They very much want you to forget your past.

The average person tends to frame their response to an issue or an idea in terms of what they know "today." The most effective thinkers aren't smarter, but, they have been exposed to more points of view than just their own.

It's easy to sit back and listen to people who say what you want to hear. Its harder to be at east while you're listening to people who bring you more than one point of view. It makes you think. It can make you confront issues that you'd rather ignore. Some times, listening to other points of view can make you realize things about yourself that you don't like. It's that "seduction" that makes propoganda so powerful.

You heard the say, "those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it." The simple and unvarnished truth is that many of our leaders have made the same mistakes as people in the past. George W. Bush is not the first President to leap before he looked. It's just not "fashionable" to make the comparisons. It should be "good citizenship" to discuss them without being labelled seditious.

reply to post by Justin_Case

Well done obersvation Justin_Case

And to antar’s statement/question: Do we not learn from the past?

Yes – the politicians did. As seen in this video, they learned to control the media coverage to get public support for their war agenda.

The choice of words is astonishing i.e. “Operation Iraqi freedom”, “State of art killing machines”, “The whole city lit up like fireworks”…….

I noticed the ‘video game style' coverage of the weapons used.



I’m not sure if the viewer realized that real people where involved on the other side…

This is one of the best documentation I have seen on this subject .
Very well done.
So much info in this video ... just sit back and watch...

I am still watching part three, but I am excited by this video.
It is fleshing out the BBC video I watched a few days ago, about how the media worked with the government to sell the war.
Great work, and thanks ATS for making this available.
I am already telling people in my local forum about this video.
I hope Sean Penn finds out that some people apreciate his efforts.
I watched two representatives of Code Pink on Washington Review this morning on c-span.
It is amazing that in a fair forum, like that, how easily they can hold their own in any argument with the supporters of the occupation.
Main stream media would never allow Code Pink a chance to present their case. Al the MSM does is riddicule them.
Again, thanks to everyone involved in this video, we may be able to save our country yet, if people were only allowed to see the truth.

[edit on 20-3-2008 by jmdewey60]

Looks like we shall not be quiet, looks like we are going to fight back sooner then later.... All that is needed now is a play on personal levels for all americans, an im sure that something of that nature will naturaly thru greed come to be. this will be a time that we will all stand up an show the sleeping that now is the age of change, an we must put forth a means to do such, wether its thru words or actions, life will not go on being supressed.


It is the nature of our social structure that these hethens have so much power, I liked that 1964 michigan senator who said that the american people should be directly involved in foreign matters, an that the president is nothing more then an administrator of the american people..... that right there hit home..

So what actions can be taken..... well think about it, with all the people in office right now, an we still have this problem over an over an over an over an over... kinda tells me this system doesnt work, maybe we the people need to take a more active role in being americans, as in repelling the forces at be who question our freedoms an means to understand facts....

if we all just rode bikes, an turnt our cars into statues in our frontlawns, if we took our credit cards an made american flags out of them, if we demand cash over stocks or bonds or credit, if we buy from americans an spread the viral vids of freedom an reality thruout mankind...

we just very well could change all that is. and thats just a peacful means of route.

AMERICANS SHOULD STRIKE OUR GOVERNMENT!

how an why this country has turned into such a warlord faction is money/power.

If we are the cash cows of this, why cant we find a way to become bears.

All I can say is... generations of Americans have been spun so hard & often, they've been reduced to a country of "Patriotic Deer in Headlights."

What can we do? What options do we have? You're doing some of it right now. ATS AP, and even BTS give you a forum in which speak and sharpen your arguments so that you can fight back in the real world.

At this stage, it's still about hearts and minds. Your words can reach millions in the form of blogs, forum posts, YouTube videos, or podcasts. Asking the hard questions means by default that you'll get a lot of attention. I'm not talking about being a bully. I'm taking about seriously engaging your brain before you open your mouth.

Videos like the one you've seen here can inform you, but they still can't form the whole of your opinions. Only you can decide what you think. When you hear a commentator, you should be on guard for partisan bias. When you hear a government official speak, your B.S. filter should automatically kick in.

When you get a chance to talk with commentators, or politicians, ask the hard questions. If it matters to you, it will most certainly matter to somebody else. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

Originally posted by Justin_Case
When you hear a commentator, you should be on guard for partisan bias. When you hear a government official speak, your B.S. filter should automatically kick in.

ROFL – a classic … so true

In my earlier post I had a dyslexic fit… it should read “observation” but it was to late to edit when I noticed the mistake.

BTW the Video is also available in full length on Google Video:

Google Video Link

Someone must have given w a 'War for Dummies' book on his first day in office.

Amazing video, starred!

The similarities, and pretexes(sp?), and words used by gov. officials, and by the media since Vietnam to now was astonishing, but moreso sickening.

Certain parts of this movie nearly made me vomit, at least made me nauseous.

But it's amazing how they just keep pulling it off, again and again, and we never hold them responsible.....

Can We?

[edit on 21-3-2008 by Nola213]

reply to post by Justin_Case


Well said.


The thing is so many people know this but it's almost like we have to turn that into a mantra much like propagandists do. People so easily forget as you pointed out and when we know a very tried and true method of brainwashing in the extreme or propagandizing in the least, is repetition. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. - Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister

So with that knowledge that repetition makes "truth" it becomes necessary for people who speak the actual truth to repeat it often themselves. The ones who seek to make falsehoods into truths never rest and they are always repeating their lies so it wears you down.

The people who speak the truth need to speak louder and more often and, apparently, need to repeat themselves in order to be believed.

Originally posted by merryxmas
The people who speak the truth need to speak louder and more often and, apparently, need to repeat themselves in order to be believed.

It's important to just be yourself. Don't dwell on the negatives. It's easy to make your case again....and again...and again...when your cool with it, AND you know the arguments inside and out. Some times, you need to relate your points from different perspectives. With some people, you tell jokes. With others, you might use sports metaphors.

It's easy to get suckered in to the notion that you don't count, orthat you won't be heard. Never forget that a million voices speak seperately...but...they become louder than when they all agree on the same thing. You don't have to be recognized as an expert in your field to be one of those voices.

It was a painful and stinging recollection of previous conflicts, as well as a very poignant reminder of what will happen again in our future if we let it. The worst part of the movie for me was when the US soldiers forced that family out of their homes by gunpoint. Everyone was so scared, the children were crying, and the parents looked devastated.

How must we look to them as a nation? I can only imagine what went through their heads at that time.

But, for all of the negativity shown in the film, it was superbly presented, with no room for question about what was going on.

My only wish is that people will see movies like this, and think long and hard before we go into another war.

'The Vietnam War Syndrome" has returned!!

Deeply saddened,
TheBorg

reply to post by AboveTopSecret.com


Sean Penn is a supporter of Hugo Chavez! Sean Penn is a traitor to his nation! BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT AMERICA!

Oh, wait... we don't do that here. But there ARE some people in other cultures who do that. In fact, we are at war with them.

Code Pink and the like remind me of the Nazi sympathizers of pre-WWII America, except back then they shut up when the war started. People say we should learn from history, and this is true, but now when new "Hitlers" show up in their build-up stage we once again try to appease them. And if we do strike some people cry out "Illegal War!" and "Impeach the President!" Folks, we can't have our cake and eat it too.

Originally posted by spaznational
but now when new "Hitlers" show up in their build-up stage we once again try to appease them. And if we do strike some people cry out "Illegal War!" and "Impeach the President!" Folks, we can't have our cake and eat it too.

Perhaps you might enlighten us as to whom you would classify as a "new Hitler"?

Being previously familiar with this documentary, one could come to several conclusions that force Americans to look no farther than Washington, DC.

Originally posted by mister.old.school

Originally posted by spaznational
but now when new "Hitlers" show up in their build-up stage we once again try to appease them. And if we do strike some people cry out "Illegal War!" and "Impeach the President!" Folks, we can't have our cake and eat it too.

Perhaps you might enlighten us as to whom you would classify as a "new Hitler"?

Being previously familiar with this documentary, one could come to several conclusions that force Americans to look no farther than Washington, DC.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Khaled Mashal
Osama bin Ladin
Hugo Chavez
and increasingly Vladimir Putin

interesting and relevant article

Originally posted by spaznational
Osama bin Ladin

He got kind and loving eyes … nah not him

I’m not sure if you watched the documentary but if you really did you would get a different message… it was in most parts about the media shaping the opinion of the viewer.

That goes as well for the conditioning of the human mind with having certain trigger words i.e. “Hitler”

Originally posted by frozen_snowman

Originally posted by spaznational
Osama bin Ladin

He got kind and loving eyes … nah not him

I’m not sure if you watched the documentary but if you really did you would get a different message… it was in most parts about the media shaping the opinion of the viewer.

That goes as well for the conditioning of the human mind with having certain trigger words i.e. “Hitler”

I didn't conjure the ghost of Hitler wantonly. Check out that article I hyperlinked.

The mainstream news media is very anti-war and anti-Bush Administration. They love to sensationalize questionable events and not report on any progress. Lately they have HAD TO because the violence has been so low. I loved it when that one reporter said "The news from Iraq is there is no news."

I think a lot of you believe the news isn't going far enough in its anti-war support. They are generally passive about it and use the method of ommission of any news that makes us look like we're finally getting our act together in Iraq.

Good news is not news seems to be the rule.

Ha Ha Ha

This video is too funny. This is a comedy. God bless war, let's nuke the world.

[edit on 23-3-2008 by In nothing we trust]