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Watching War Movies in Baghdad: Popular Culture and the Construction of Military Policy in the Iraq War

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Polity

Abstract

This article investigates the use of popular culture films by the United States military during the Iraq War. We first examine why the 2003 mission to capture Saddam Hussein was named after Red Dawn, the 1984 film about the Soviet invasion and occupation of the American heartland, and how it helped define U.S. soldiers’ understanding of their mission in Iraq. We then consider how and why in 2006 military planning groups screened films, including Meeting Resistance, whose narrative centers of gravity tilt toward Muslim Arab populations resisting the occupations of Western militaries. We argue that the circulation of these movies encouraged military audiences to critically reconsider their aims and mission in the midst of the unanticipated emergence of an Iraqi insurgency. The broader purpose of these investigations is to demonstrate the ways in which popular culture can shape individuals’ understanding of their political problems and possibilities, even in times of war.

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Notes

  1. Anthony Swofford, Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles (New York: Scribner, 2003), 6–7.

  2. Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1927), 9.

  3. Ibid., 4–5, 191.

  4. Max Horkheimer, "Art and Mass Culture," Studies in Philosophy and Social Science 9 (1941): 290–304, at 302–03, 294.

  5. Theodor W. Adorno, "On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening," in The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. J. M. Bernstein (London: Routledge, 2001 [1938]), 1–60, at 45.

  6. Sheldon S. Wolin, Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004), 581–82.

  7. Ibid., 583.

  8. John Kurt Jacobsen, "In Cahoots? Cinema, Cynicism, and Citizenship," in Experiencing the State, ed. Lloyd I. Rudolph and John Kurt Jacobsen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 236–67, at 257–58.

  9. Elspeth Van Veeren, "Interrogating 24: Making Sense of US Counter-Terrorism in the Global War on Terrorism," New Political Science 31 (2009): at 361–84, at 363.

  10. Murray J. Edelman, From Art to Politics: How Artistic Creations Shape Political Conceptions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 2–3.

  11. Ibid., 2.

  12. Jutta Weldes, "Going Cultural: Star Trek, State Action, and Popular Culture," Millennium: Journal of International Studies 28 (1999): 117–34, at 119; Jutta Weldes and Christina Rowley, "So, How Does Popular Culture Relate to World Politics?," in Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods, and Pedagogies, ed. Federica Caso and Caitlin Hamilton (Bristol, U.K.: E-International Relations Publishing, 2015), 18.

  13. Kyle Grayson, Matt Davies, and Simon Philpott, "Pop Goes IR? Researching the Popular Culture–World Politics Continuum," Politics 29 (2009): 155–63, at 157.

  14. Ibid., 157.

  15. Richard Iton, In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2008), 82; Susan Burgess, "Gender and Sexuality Politics in the James Bond Film Series: Cultural Origins of Gay Inclusion in the U.S Military," Polity (2015): 225–48, at 229.

  16. Evan Thomas and Babak Dehghanpisheh, "Inside Red Dawn: Saddam up Close," Newsweek, December 29, 2003, 48.

  17. Robin Moore, Hunting Down Saddam: The Inside Story of the Search and Capture (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004), 256–57.

  18. Evan Thomas and Rod Nordland, "How We Got Saddam," Newsweek, December 22, 2003.

  19. Brett Baier, Rita Cosby, and Jim Angle, "Saddam Captured 'Like a Rat' in Raid," Fox News Online, December 14, 2003, at http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/12/14/saddam-captured-like-rat-in-raid.html.

  20. George W. Bush, "President Bush Addresses the Nation Regarding the Capture of Saddam Hussein by US Forces," December 14, 2003, at http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031214-3.html.

  21. Matthew Burden, "Operation Red Dawn – ‘Wolverines!!!’," Blackfive Blog (December 14, 2003), at http://www.blackfive.net/main/2003/12/saddam_is_captu.html.

  22. Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay, "Intelligence Agencies Warned About Growing Local Insurgency in Late 2003," McClatchy News Services (February 28, 2006), at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/special-reports/iraq-intelligence/article24463582.html.

  23. Johnny Dwyer, "Red Dawn’s New Day," The New York Press, December 30, 2003, at http://www.nypress.com/red-dawns-new-day/.

  24. John J. Miller, “The Best Conservative Movies,” National Review, February 23, 2009, 38–42.

  25. Ibid., 41.

  26. Gregory Sieminski, "The Art of Naming Operations," Parameters 25 (1995): 81–98, at 81.

  27. Bob Woodward, The Commanders (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 173.

  28. Christopher D. O'Sullivan, Colin Powell: American Power and Intervention from Vietnam to Iraq (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009), 83.

  29. "Iraq Pacification Operations," Global Security (2010), at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_ongoing_mil_ops.htm.

  30. "Red Dawn Imitated Art," USA Today, December 17, 2003.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Red Dawn, directed by John Milius (Santa Monica, Calif.: MGM Home Entertainment Collector’s Edition, 2007 [1984]).

  33. See Alexander Nevsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein (Irvington, N.Y: Criterion Collection, 1938 [2001]).

  34. Dwyer, "Red Dawn’s New Day" (see note 23 above).

  35. Milius, "Red Dawn" (see note 32 above).

  36. Sieminski, “Art of Naming Operations,” 87, 89, passim (see note 26 above).

  37. Meeting Resistance, directed by Steve Connors and Molly Bingham (New York: First Run Features, 2007).

  38. Molly Bingham and Steve Connors, interview with Gerard Huiskamp, February 8, 2010.

  39. Connors and Bingham, Meeting Resistance (see note 37 above).

  40. D. J. Morris [hostagecow], “Red Dawn (Yes, the Movie) & Iraq,” Small Wars Council (blog), June 7, 2007, at http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=3109 (emphasis added).

  41. Eric Schmitt, “Pentagon Contradicts General on Iraq Occupation Force’s Size,” New York Times, February 28, 2003, at www.nytimes.com/.

  42. Fred Kaplan, “War-gamed,” Slate, March 28, 2003, at http://www.slate.com/id/2080814/.

  43. Thom Shanker, “New Strategy Vindicates Ex-Army Chief Shinseki, New York Times, January 12, 2007, at www.nytimes.com/.

  44. United States Government Accountability Office, Enemy-Initiated Attacks by Month, May 2003 to May 2008: GAO Analysis of DIA-Reported Multi-National Force-Iraq data, May 2008. (Washington, D.C.: GAO, 2008).

  45. Anna Mulrine, “The Army Trains a Skeptic Corps to Battle Groupthink,” U.S. News & World Report, May 15, 2008, at www.usnews.com/.

  46. Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, “Out-of-the-Box Thinkers,” Armed Forces Journal (November 2008), at http://www.afji.com/2008/11/3759060.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Ibid.

  49. Defense Science Board Task Force, The Role and Status of DoD Red Teaming Activities (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, September 2003), 1–2.

  50. Julian E. Barnes, “Military Planners in Iraq May Soon be Seeing ‘Red,’” Los Angeles Times, January 19, 2007, at http://www.latimes.com/.

  51. Defense Science Board Task Force, Role and Status of DoD Red Teaming, 5, emphasis added (see note 49 above).

  52. Sieminski, “Art of Naming Operations,” 86–87 (see note 26 above).

  53. Ibid., 86, 82.

  54. Robert B. Asprey, The German High Command at War: Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the First World War (New York: W. Morrow, 1991), 340–41.

  55. Col. Jeff Ragland, interview with Gerard Huiskamp, February 16, 2010.

  56. Rachel Kleinfeld, “Petraeus the Progressive,” Democracy 11 (Winter 2009), 108–109.

  57. Emram Qureshi, “Misreading ‘The Arab Mind,’” Boston Globe, May 30, 2004, at http://www.boston.com/.

  58. Semour M. Hersh, “The Gray Zone,” New Yorker, May 24, 2004, at http://www.newyorker.com/.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Dexter Filkins, “Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns,” New York Times, December 7, 2003, at http://www.nytimes.com.

  61. Ibid.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Mulrine, “Army Trains a Skeptic Corps” (see note 45 above).

  64. Anderson, “Out-of-the-Box Thinkers” (see note 46 above).

  65. Ragland, interview (see note 55 above).

  66. Ibid.

  67. Ibid. The films screened as part of the program, in order of appearance: The Battle of Algiers (1967); The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq (2005); Why We Fight (2005); Dreams of Sparrows (2005); Triumph of the Will (1935); Turtles Can Fly (2004); Paradise Now (2005); Inside the Mind of a Suicide Bomber (2003); Control Room (2004); My Country, My Country (2006); Our Brand is Crisis (2005); The Fourth World War (2003); High Noon (1952); Marooned in Iraq (2002); Jesus Camp (2006); Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West (2005); Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1943); The War Within (2005); Lumumba (2000); A Place Called Chiapas (1998); and Meeting Resistance (2007).

  68. III Corps Red Team, Some Key Discussion Points from Red Team Movie Night, Handout, Baghdad, Iraq, n.d.

  69. John Milburn, “Red Team U. Creates Critical Thinkers,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 20, 2007, at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.

  70. Ragland, interview (see note 55 above).

  71. III Corps Red Team, Discussion Points (see note 68 above).

  72. Ibid.

  73. Control Room, directed by Jehane Noujaim (Santa Monica, Calif.: Noujaim Films, 2004).

  74. Ibid.

  75. III Corps Red Team, Discussion (see note 68 above).

  76. Ragland, interview (see note 55 above).

  77. Bingham and Connors, interview (see note 38 above).

  78. Ibid.

  79. Ragland, interview (see note 55 above).

  80. Bingham and Connors, interview (see note 38 above).

  81. Ibid.

  82. Simon Philpott, “Is Anyone Watching? War, Cinema and Bearing Witness,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 23 (2010): 325–48.

  83. Ibid., 327.

  84. Full Metal Jacket, directed by Stanley Kubrick (Burbank, Calif.: Warner Home Video, 2001 [1987]).

  85. Gavin Dahl, “Soldiers ‘Joked about Killing Women and Children,’” The Raw Story, May 12, 2010, at http://www.rawstory.com/.

  86. Ibid.

  87. Nadya Williams, “Josh and Conor – Home from War in Iraq,” Voices of Veterans Forum, Veterans For Peace, January 26, 2010, at http://www.vsasf.org/voices.html.

  88. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1995).

  89. Eric Moskowitz, “McCain’s Vietnam Lesson: Don’t Give Up,” Concord Monitor, May 20, 2007, at http://www.concordmonitor.com/.

  90. Bingham and Connors, interview (see note 38 above).

  91. Mulrine, “Army Trains a Skeptic Corps” (see note 49 above).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Wheaton College, 26 E Main Street, Norton, MA, 02766, USA

    Gerard Huiskamp & Nick Dorzweiler

  2. The American-Turkish Council, 2001 N Adams St. Unit 409, Arlington, VA, USA

    Eli Lovely

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  1. Gerard Huiskamp
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  2. Nick Dorzweiler
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  3. Eli Lovely
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Correspondence to Gerard Huiskamp.

Additional information

The authors thank Otis Grant, Kevan Yenerall, Darlene Boroviak, William Allen, and Katherine Arens for their encouragement and helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We would also like to thank Leonard Feldman, Associate Editor for Political Theory at Polity, as well as the anonymous reviewers for helping us to clarify and strengthen the analysis.

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Huiskamp, G., Dorzweiler, N. & Lovely, E. Watching War Movies in Baghdad: Popular Culture and the Construction of Military Policy in the Iraq War. Polity 48, 496–523 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41279-016-0003-7

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