Love, Hate & Propaganda

1991. Out of the ruins of the Cold War, a dominant America finds itself in a new kind of war. A war with no true battlefield, no front lines, in which religion will be used as a weapon. It all begins with Operation Desert Storm. The Americans easily win the first Gulf War and drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, but they will make two decisions that fundamentally impact the future: Saddam Hussein is left in power in Iraq, while U.S. military troops remain in Saudi Arabia to ensure the region's stability. Muslims are incensed by the presence of foreigners on Mohammed's sacred land. The result will be the first attacks on the World Trade Centre in 1993, but also, and more importantly, Osama Bin Laden declares jihad, a holy war, against America in 1998. He orchestrates the attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Then, the biggest shock of all, September 11, 2001, the worst attack on American civilians in history.

U.S. President George W. Bush sells his war in Iraq as a necessary conflict aimed at removing a dictator whose weapons of mass destruction pose a global terrorist threat. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is supposed to be a quick surgical strike, a campaign of "shock and awe". The western media jumps at the chance to cover the story, but reporters have limited access, except for those "embedded" with the military. After three weeks, Bush declares "Mission Accomplished". The war is over, but it's really only the beginning. A guerilla insurgency takes hold. Al Jazeera, the Arabic language network, chronicles the conflict in detail. The White House loses control of its propaganda message; first, with the bloody combat in the city of Fallujah, then with shocking images from the Abu Ghraib jail, where American soldiers are revealed to be abusing their Iraqi prisoners. The propaganda war, meanwhile, is extending beyond the Middle East and into Europe and North America via cyberspace. Al Qaeda uses the internet as a tool to recruit and train new members, co-ordinate attacks and encourage others to do the same - in some cases with lethal consequences.