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Enemy Image

When Baghdad exploded under bombs, television chose to bring us fireworks. But does this distant and spectacular image tell us what is really happening on the ground, how it feels or what it means? Television has the means to take us anywhere and show us anything. It can bring us the physical experience of war with all its’ horrors, like no other medium, and yet the image of American war on television is disembodied, bloodless, and unreal. The invasion of Iraq was the most closely documented war ever fought. Lasting only 800 hours, it produced 20,000 hours of video, but those images were tightly controlled, producing a monolithic view of combat sanitized and controlled by the Pentagon.

Enemy Image traces the ways us television has covered war, starting with Vietnam in the 1960s and shows how the military has devised ever-improving means of ensuring the American public never again has the real face of combat beamed directly into their living rooms. Comparing footage of Vietnam, including rarely-seen material shot in North Vietnam, to coverage of Iraq and using extensive interviews with veteran war correspondents and news anchors, Mark Daniels demonstrates how television that once revealed the truth is now increasingly used to hide it.

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  1. Should it not be that the “First Response” of seeing a picture of the inside of an airplane with caskets covered with American Flags be of sadness that they gave their lives to The White House in a war for The White House; should it not be that the first response be of sadness? And you mean to tell me that the “First Response” of The White House from this picture was of anger because the picture was interfering with the “SALESMANSHIP” of Selling War! Damn! Can The White House get anymore in being a Selfish, Self-Centered Scumbag! DAMN! THE FIRST RESPONSE WAS NOT SADDNESS?! DAMN! It is No Wonder why The White House does not send their children to these wars! DAMN! The “First Response” was of “SALESMANSHIP AND SELFISHNESS TO SELL WAR!” DAMN! I strongly feel that the America of Freedom, Democracy, Honor, Truth, and The American Dream are far too gone to ever be rescued from a White House who serves under a Politically Correct Flag.

    There is a Chessboard that is being setup in such a way that a Major event is to take place in a “SMALL TOWN” in The United States Of America, and the NEWS will read: “ALL ARE DEAD IN A CITY OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA!” The White House will respond to the World that Muslim Insurgents came to The United States of America disguised as Syrian Refugees, and there is evidence that IRAN is behind it. Then, The United States of America will invade simultaneously Iran, and/or Iraq, and/or Syria. If this takes place, World War Three will be knocking on the door of the Entire World! DAY OF ENTRY: February 13, 2016. EYE 5

  2. I liked the video, its was very entertaining.

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  5. The first half of the film about the TV coverage of the war in Vietnam is the best part of the film. The rest is fairly scanty and the section about Iraq hardly takes into account the effect of alternative news outlets (like aljazeera, et al; the internet) is having on peoples’ understanding of the war.