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As a result, the Bush administration’s propaganda that proposed the linkage
between Iraq and terrorism seemed successful in the nation, but ineffective outside the
U.S. Shortly after the Bush’s ultimatum on March 17, the national online poll by AOL
showed that 60% of the American people approved of the U.S.’s unilateral action of
war in Iraq and 22% supported war on the condition of UN’s approval. This
demonstrated that the support for the war soared surprisingly when compared to the
poll conducted a month ago by CNN & Gallup in which 57% of Americans opposed
unilateral military action independent of the United Nations. Outside America,
however, even countries whose governments affirmed support for the U.S. suffered
from strong opposition from their public and unprecedented anti-war protests that
were fierce, massive and ceaseless.
Research Questions
What made many Americans support the war and believe in the relationship
between Iraq and terrorism while most people outside the U.S. including British
citizens kept antagonizing the U.S.’s unilateral action? Why did many Americans
approve of the unilateral operation during the last couple of months before the war?
The government’s propaganda and patriotism could be answers, but there lies another
important factor that strongly affected Americans’ belief about the linkage between
Iraq and terrorism: the media. Had it not been for U.S. media that influenced
worldview of its audiences, the prominent domestic success of the government’s
propaganda would not have been possible. It is no exaggeration to say that the U.S.
media’s coverage before the war was predominantly framed based on the American consensus
Convention