Saigo Takamori The Last Samurai

Saigo Takamori of Japan is known as the Last Samurai, who lived from 1828 to 1877 and is remembered to this day as the epitome of bushido, the samurai code. Although much of his history has been lost, recent scholars have discovered clues to the true nature of this illustrious warrior and diplomat. From humble beginnings in the capital of Satsuma, Saigo followed the path of the samurai through his brief exile and would go on to lead reform in the Meiji government, eventually dying for his cause—leaving a lasting impact on the people and culture of 1800s Japan. Early Life of the Last Samurai Saigo Takamori was born on January 23, 1828, in Kagoshima, Satsumas capital, the oldest of seven children. His father, Saigo Kichibei, was a low-ranking samurai tax official who only managed to scrape by despite his samurai status. As a result, Takamori and his siblings all shared a single blanket at night even though they were large people, sturdy with a few standing over six feet tall. Takamoris parents also had to borrow money to buy farmland in order to have enough food for the growing family. This upbringing instilled a sense of dignity, frugality, and honor in young Saigo. At age six, Saigo Takamori started at the local goju—or samurai  elementary school—and got his first wakizashi, the short sword used by samurai warriors. He excelled more as a scholar than a warrior, reading extensively before he graduated from school at 14 and was formally introduced to the Satsuma in 1841. Three years later, he began work in the local bureaucracy as an agricultural adviser, where he continued to work through his brief, childless arranged marriage to 23-year-old Ijuin Suga in 1852. Not long after the wedding, both of Saigos parents died, leaving Saigo as the head of a family of twelve with little income to support them. Politics in Edo (Tokyo) Shortly thereafter, Saigo was promoted to the post of daimyos attendant in 1854 and accompanied his lord to Edo on alternate attendance, taking a 900-mile-long walk to the shoguns capital, where the young man would work as his lords gardener, unofficial spy, and confident. Soon, Saigo was Daimyo Shimazu Nariakiras closest adviser, consulting other national figures on affairs including the shogunal succession. Nariakira and his allies sought to increase the emperors power at the expense of the shogun, but on July 15, 1858, Shimazu died suddenly, likely of poison. As was the tradition for samurai in the event of their lords death, Saigo contemplated committing to accompany Shimazu into death, but the monk Gessho convinced him to live and continue his political work to honor Nariakiras memory instead. However, the shogun began to purge pro-imperial politicians, forcing Gessho to seek Saigos help in escaping to Kagoshima, where the new Satsuma daimyo, unfortunately, refused to protect the pair from shogun officials. Rather than facing arrest, Gessho and Saigo jumped from a skiff into Kagoshima Bay and were pulled from the water by the boats crew—regrettably, Gessho could not be revived. The Last Samurai in Exile The shoguns men were still hunting him, so Saigo went into a three-year internal exile on the small island of Amami Oshima. He changed his name to Saigo Sasuke, and the domain government declared him dead. Other imperial loyalists wrote to him for advice on politics, so despite his exile and officially dead status, he continued to have an impact in Kyoto. By 1861, Saigo was well-integrated into the local community. Some children had pestered him into becoming their teacher, and the kind-hearted giant complied. He also married a local woman named  Aigana and fathered a son. He was settling happily into island life but reluctantly had to leave the island in February of 1862 when he was called back to Satsuma. Despite a rocky relationship with the new daimyo of Satsuma, Nariakiras half-brother Hisamitsu, Saigo soon was back in the fray. He went to the Emperors court in Kyoto in March and was amazed to meet samurai from other domains who treated him with reverence for his defense of Gessho. His political organizing ran afoul of the new daimyo, however, who had him arrested and banished to a different small island just four months after his return from Amami. Saigo was getting accustomed to the second island when he was transferred to a desolate penal island further south, where he spent more than a year on that dreary rock, returning to Satsuma only in February of 1864. Just four days after his return, he had an audience with the daimyo, Hisamitsu, who shocked him by appointing him commander of the Satsuma army in Kyoto. Return to the Capital In the Emperors capital, politics had changed significantly during Saigos exile. Pro-emperor daimyo and radicals called for an end to the shogunate and the expulsion of all foreigners. They saw Japan as the abode of gods—since the Emperor descended from the Sun Goddess—and believed that the heavens would protect them from the western military and economic might. Saigo supported a stronger role for the Emperor  but distrusted the others millennial rhetoric. Small-scale rebellions broke out around Japan, and the shoguns troops proved shockingly unable to put down the uprisings. The Tokugawa regime was falling apart, but it had not yet occurred to Saigo that a future Japanese government might not include a shogun—after all, the shoguns had ruled Japan  for 800 years. As commander of Satsumas troops, Saigo led an 1864 punitive expedition against the Choshu domain, whose army in Kyoto had opened fire on the Emperors residence. Along with troops from Aizu, Saigos massive army marched on Choshu, where he negotiated a peaceful settlement rather than launching an attack. Later this would turn out to be a pivotal decision since Choshu was Satsumas major ally in the Boshin War. Saigos nearly bloodless victory won him national fame, eventually leading to his appointment as an elder of Satsuma in September of 1866. Fall of the Shogun At the same time, the shoguns government in Edo was increasingly tyrannical, trying to keep a hold on power. It threatened an all-out attack on Choshu, even though it did not have the military might to defeat that large domain. Bonded by their distaste for the shogunate, Choshu and Satsuma gradually formed an alliance. On December 25, 1866, the 35-year-old Emperor Komei suddenly died. He was succeeded by his 15-year-old son, Mutsuhito, who would later become known as the Meiji Emperor. During 1867, Saigo and officials from Choshu and Tosa made plans to bring down the Tokugawa bakufu. On January 3, 1868, the Boshin War began with Saigos army of 5,000 marching forward to attack the shoguns army, numbering three times as many men. The shogunates troops were well-armed, but their leaders had no consistent strategy, and they failed to cover their own flanks. On the third day of battle, the artillery division from Tsu domain defected to Saigos side and began to shell the shoguns army instead. By May, Saigos army had surrounded Edo and threatened to attack, forcing the shoguns government to surrender. The formal ceremony took place on April 4, 1868, and the former shogun was even allowed to keep his head! However, Northeastern domains led by Aizu continued to fight on the shoguns behalf until September., when they surrendered to Saigo, who treated them fairly, furthering his fame as a symbol of samurai virtue. Forming the Meiji Government After the Boshin War, Saigo retired to hunt, fish, and soak in hot springs. Like all other times in his life, though, his retirement was short-lived—in January of 1869, the Satsuma daimyo made him a counselor of the domains government. Over the next two years, the government seized land from the elite samurai and redistributed profits to lower ranked warriors. It began to promote samurai officials based on talent, rather than rank, and also encouraged the development of modern industry. In Satsuma and the rest of Japan, though, it was not clear whether reforms like these were sufficient, or if the entire social and political systems were due for a revolutionary change. It turned out the be the latter—the emperors government in Tokyo wanted a new, centralized system, not just a collection of more efficient, self-governing domains.   In order to concentrate power, Tokyo needed a national military, rather than relying on the domain lords to supply troops.  In April of 1871, Saigo was persuaded to return to Tokyo to organize the new national army. With an army in place, the Meiji government summoned the remaining daimyo to Tokyo in mid-July, 1871 and abruptly announced that the domains were dissolved and the lords authorities abolished. Saigos own daimyo, Hisamitsu, was the only one who publicly railed against the decision, leaving Saigo tormented by the idea that he had betrayed his domain lord. In 1873, the central government began to conscript commoners as soldiers, replacing the samurai. Debate over Korea Meanwhile, the Joseon Dynasty in Korea refused to recognize the Mutsuhito as an emperor, because it traditionally recognized only the Chinese emperor as such—all other rulers were mere kings. The Korean government even went as far as having a prefect publicly state that by adopting western-style customs and clothing, Japan had become a barbarian nation. By early 1873, Japanese militarists who interpreted this as a grave affront called for an invasion of Korea but in a July meeting that year, Saigo opposed sending warships to Korea. He argued that Japan should use diplomacy, rather than resorting to force, and offered to head a delegation himself. Saigo suspected that the Koreans might assassinate him, but felt that his death would be worthwhile if it gave Japan a truly legitimate reason to attack its neighbor. In October, the prime minister announced that Saigo would not be allowed to travel to Korea as an emissary. In disgust, Saigo resigned as the army general, imperial councilor, and commander of the imperial guards the next day. Forty-six other military officers from the southwest resigned as well, and government officials feared that Saigo would lead a coup. Instead, he went home to Kagoshima. In the end, the dispute with Korea came to a head only in 1875 when a Japanese ship sailed to Korean shores, provoking artillery there into opening fire. Then, Japan attacked forcing the Joseon king to sign an unequal treaty, which eventually led to the outright annexation of Korea in 1910. Saigo was disgusted by this treacherous tactic as well. Another Brief Respite from Politics Saigo Takamori had led the way in Meiji reforms including the creation of a conscript army and the end of daimyo rule. However, disgruntled samurai in Satsuma viewed him as a symbol of traditional virtues and wanted him to lead them in opposition to the Meiji state. After his retirement, however, Saigo simply wanted to play with his kids, hunt, and go fishing. He suffered from angina and also filariasis, a parasitic infection that gave him a grotesquely enlarged scrotum. Saigo spent a lot of time soaking in hot springs and strenuously avoiding politics. Saigos retirement project was the Shigakko, new private schools for young Satsuma samurai where the students studied infantry, artillery, and the Confucian classics. He funded but was not directly involved with the schools, so did not know that the students were becoming radicalized against the Meiji government. This opposition reached the boiling point in 1876 when the central government banned samurai from carrying swords and stopped paying them stipends. The Satsuma Rebellion By ending the samurai classs privileges, the Meiji government had essentially abolished their identity, allowing small-scale rebellions to erupt all over Japan. Saigo privately cheered on the rebels in other provinces, but stayed at his country house rather than returning to Kagoshima for fear that his presence might spark yet another rebellion. As tensions increased, in January 1877, the central government sent a ship to seize munitions stores from Kagoshima. The Shigakko students heard that the Meiji ship was coming and emptied the arsenal before it arrived.  Over the next several nights, they raided additional arsenals around Kagoshima, stealing weapons and ammunition, and to make matters worse, they discovered that the national police had sent a number of Satsuma natives to the Shigakko as central government spies. The spy leader confessed under torture that he was supposed to assassinate Saigo. Roused from his seclusion, Saigo felt that this treachery and wickedness in the imperial government required a response. He did not want to rebel, still feeling deep personal loyalty to the Meiji Emperor, but announced on February 7 that he would go to Tokyo to question the central government. The Shigakko students set out with him, bringing rifles, pistols, swords, and artillery. In all, about 12,000 Satsuma men marched north toward Tokyo, starting the Southwest War, or Satsuma Rebellion. The Death of the Last Samurai Saigos troops marched out confidently, sure that samurai in other provinces would rally to their side, but they faced an imperial army of 45,000 with access to unlimited supplies of ammunition. The rebels momentum soon stalled when they settled into a months-long siege of Kumamoto Castle, just 109 miles north of Kagoshima. As the siege wore on, the rebels ran low on munitions, prompting them to switch back to their swords. Saigo soon noted that he had fallen into their trap and taken the bait of settling into a siege. By March, Saigo realized that his rebellion was doomed. It did not bother him, though—he welcomed the opportunity to die for his principles. By May, the rebel army was in retreat southward, with the imperial army picking them off up and down Kyushu until September of 1877. On September 1, Saigo and his 300 surviving men moved to Shiroyama mountain above Kagoshima, which was occupied by 7,000 imperial troops. On September 24, 1877, at 3:45 am, the Emperors army launched its final assault in what is known as the Battle of Shiroyama. Saigo was shot through the femur in the last suicide charge and one of his companions cut off his head and hid it from the imperial troops to preserve his honor.   Although all of the rebels were killed, the imperial troops managed to locate Saigos buried head. Later woodcut prints depicted the rebel leader kneeling to commit traditional seppuku, but that would not have been possible given his filariasis and shattered leg. Saigos Legacy Saigo Takamori helped to usher in the modern era in Japan, serving as one of the three most powerful officials in the early Meiji government. However, he was never able to reconcile his love of samurai tradition with the demands of modernizing the nation. In the end, he was killed by the imperial army he organized. Today, he serves the thoroughly modern nation of Japan as a symbol of its samurai traditions—traditions that he reluctantly helped to destroy.

Strengths And Weaknesses Of My Family Essay - 1542 Words

Strengths: Two major strengths of my family are is our strong desire to have close relationships with one another, and the hard work ethic of my family. Despite all of the relationships in my family, those are the two most common. It all started with my grandfather Klein and my grandma Alene, they both came from families that had nothing. At one point in their marriage they lived in a tent†¦ they’ve come a long way and now are some of the wealthiest people I know and have used their success to help all their children and grandchild succeed. They taught us ALL how to work hard and to never give up on our dreams. While always pursuing their dreams and go after them, despite all their success, they still put relationships first. My grandparents owned numerous businesses, one being and R.V. Park. They treated their tenants with so much kindness and love. When my grandfather passed away, I had countless people coming up to me saying things like: â€Å"Your grandfather gave my first job, or my second chance†, â€Å"He loaned me money and never asked for a dime back†, â€Å"He helped start my business and help it become what it is today†, â€Å"He was the most humble and giving man I know†. All these strangers going out of their way to make sure I knew how great my grandfather was made me realize the kind of person I want to be. 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Virtual Team Challenges in ICT Projects

Question: Discuss about theVirtual Team Challenges in ICT Projects. Answer: Introduction Financial pressures on ICT projects have been a reason for companies setting up virtual teams for project management as virtual space consumes less of financial resources of an organization. However, with virtual teams come several challenges concerning culture, communication, technology and management. This paper makes an attempt to understand how virtual team work and explores various challenges that are faced by them in ICT environment. The paper would also come up with some recommendations on how some of these challenges can be overcome to enhance the performance of virtual teams(Afaq, et al., 2014). Virtual Project Management Virtual project management is an outcome of people working together remotely on a project towards a unified goal. Different people in a virtual team work in different boundaries of time, space and geography but are linked together with communication technologies. Skyrmeidentified three dimensions of virtual teams and these include time, place and organizational structure. Gussdefined project teams using four classes of project teams including the following: Project Team Class Characteristics Pure No single organizational method is controlling different virtual teams Transitional Teams have mono as well as hybrid forms Hybrid Teams show multi-organizational culture Unified Every team member works for the same organization(Barker, 2001) Peterson and Stohrhave identified 7 types of virtual teams as listed below: Networked Teams: Networked teams have diffused boundaries and fluid membership such that all team members work on same goals Parallel Teams: These teams are distinctive in nature and work on temporary basis for developing recommendations on improvements. Project Teams: These teams perform non-routine tasks for a specified duration and have some level of authority for making decisions related to a project Production Teams: These teams have members with clearly defined roles and specific set of routine deliverables Service Teams: A round the clock service support role is remotely provided by service teams Management teams: These teams work in close collaboration within a specific functional division Action Teams: These teams are used in emergency conditions and have to provide immediate response(Fisher Fisher, 2001). Because of this diversity displayed by different types of teams, complex ICT projects have to face many challenges as they show cultural differences, communication differences and so on. The next section discusses various challenges that are exclusively faced by virtual teams. A framework of virtual teams on an ICT project may be used to understand how these different teams work together towards a unified project goal. Figure 1: Virtual Teams in Organizations Virtual teams work in the purview of broader social system that is formed out of interactions between people from different cultures. There can be differences in their norms, values, technology adoption behaviour, and communication approaches. These factors can influence the group dynamics, organizational processes and project management strategies. As the project management in virtual teams has to have considerations of differences in geography, cultures, structures, and temporal differences, project management in virtual teams can become very complex(Par' Dub, 2000). Challenges Virtual teams can already face regular projects team challenges such as false consensus, unresolved conflicts, closure avoidance, uneven team participation, calcified meetings, and lack of accountability. However, with virtual structure in place, there are additional challenges such as: Technology Adoration: When virtual teams are connected with technology, an additional dimension comes up to add to challenges which are technology adoration. Technology adoration causes people to only use technology and depend on the same for interaction and thus, they may always use emails for communication avoid face to face interactions such as over phone or through personal meetings even when opportunities are provided(Iqbal Nauaman, 2001). Lack of Trust: In traditional working methods, people working for same organization could also have face to face interactions and thus, there were more opportunities to collaborate and understand each other as well as develop trust. However, this advantage of ability to interact is not there with the virtual teams and thus, trust can become a major issue (Rolfes, 2001). Lack of Rich Communication: Another issue with virtual teams is the lack of richness in communication. This includes absence of immediate feedback, lack of multiple communication cues, and personalization. Lack of non-verbal communication which happens in face to face meeting can also play a role in building relationships but the same is not possible while working in virtual settings. Thus, building relationships to bring coordination among people can be a big challenge in virtual teams(REED KNIGHT, 2011). Differential Time Zones: Virtual teams operate in different time zones and exercise the freedom to work as per their own comfortable time. However, this freedom can lead to weakening of relationships between project team members and also affect the commitment levels of teams. A case study by Kelley and Sankey in 2008 revealed that differential time zones were one of the unique and most challenging factors while working with virtual teams for organizations. Cultural Differences: Culture is a set of norms, values and beliefs that are shared between specific team members. In virtual teams, differential cultures exist that can impact the communication between the members. Cultural differences are easier to resolve in a face to face setting but in the virtual setting, the interaction is very less and thus, cultural barriers are even more pronounced. While traditional teams may have cultural barriers caused by differences in upbringing, the organizational culture would remain same but in the case of virtual teams, even the organizational cultures within which they work could be different due to geographical, functional and other types of team dispersions. Technology knowledge: Various team members can come from different parts of the world and many a times, to bring them together, collaborative technologies like audio conferencing, video conferencing, blogging, chatting and forums are used. However, this presents an additional challenges as not all the team members may be comfortable or know how to use these technologies and thus, some of the members can be at disadvantage unless they are trained on these collaborative technologies. However, training can add cost as well as loss of man hours for the organization. Coordination Barriers: Coordination barriers such as isolation, lack of cohesion, and so on can lead to problems like delays, priority shifts, and failure to keep the commitments. Coordination barriers can cause delays in communication and thus, delays in deliverables putting pressures on team members that can also cause conflicts as every team member would try to blame another member for any delays or discrepancies happening in the project deliverables. Technical Connectivity: Increasing failures of technologies make it difficult for teams to communicate with each other throughput without inconsistencies and this can put pressures on performance and collaboration among team members in virtual setting. For instance, in case a software is developed for project team members to chat with each other over intranet but intranet link is down then it would be challenging for them to communication which would lead to loss of opportunity communicate and coordinate. Insufficient Knowledge Transfer: Most of the communication happening between the members of a virtual team is through formal channels like emailing, document sharing, training and interviews. However, this can lead to lack of transfer of complete knowledge between the team members as the interaction would not be very interactive or interesting. Conclusions Recommendations The aim of this report was to identify challenges in project management when virtual teams are used for complex ICT projects. It was found that in any project or organization, there were different types of teams that existed with different goals such that even while working on a unified goal for single project goal, common challenges can still occur due to these differences such as false consensus, unresolved conflicts, closure avoidance, uneven team participation, calcified meetings, and lack of accountability. With use of virtual teams, more challenges were added such as technology adoration, lack of trust, lack of richness in communications, cultural differences, and differential knowledge of technology, coordination barriers, technological connectivity failures, insufficient knowledge transfer, and differential time zones. However, these challenges can be overcome by using the following recommended strategies: Trust can be built in virtual project team members when members are reliable, responsive and consistent in their performance. Thus project managers must work to encourage employees towards displaying these attributes and maintain a decorum to build trust between team members Cultural differences cannot be eliminated but if they are studied properly by a project manager such that he or she comes up with a shared approach considering all cultures which is acceptable to all, the conflicts arising due to cultural differences can be avoided to certain extent. Virtual team members lack richness in communication but if video conferences can be used to bring them together on a single platform, the communication can be enriched with verbal as well as non-verbal communication added to the interaction. However, this can be costly to the company and thus, a company may use it sparingly but use more of collaborative technologies that are more affordable such as audio conferencing, blogging and forum. However, while teams are encouraged to use these, the organizations should also make an attempt to provide them training on the use of technologies. If a stipulated time is allotted for training, it can lead to cost to the company and, thus, a project manager may only train the line managers or department heads who would then individually take care of training for their individual teams(Azimi, 2011). To enhance knowledge transfer among team members, some informal methods like storytelling, debating, mentoring or coaching may be used by the project manager to make things both interesting and interactive encourage teams to participate and interact with each other through discussions. Project manager has to act as a leader who can identify coordination barriers and take steps to eliminate or reduce them. Nemiro et al. (2008) says that a project leader must motivate team members, encourage coordination between them and develop teams through provision of unified goals and messages, establishing identities for teams and managing conflicts between them. Workers in remote locations can be monitored by project manager by using performance metrics, defined deliverables, and prototypes that can be integrated earlier in the project plan so as to bring in unified approaches and performance goals for teams as well as allow project manager to keep track of their performance in an unbiased manner to avoid conflicts or dissatisfaction among different team members. A code of conduct can be established and communicated to all team members by the project manager to bring cohesion and control over the work behaviour of people. Use of a common platform as a communication centre which is open to all the team members such that they can have access to same information and thus, are updated equally, can relieve coordination challenges. With teams having same and latest information, they can coordinate and communicate better on project which would enhance their interaction and reduce conflicts. For instance, management information systems that have access to everyone on the project can be used to obtain status of the project, its deliverables, goals and everything related such that while interacting with other team members, they would have the same data to talk about and there would not be any differences of opinion that can otherwise cause conflicts. A project manager may plan for meetings and collaborative activities during the time when all team members are present and thus, more interaction and collaboration is possible with more team members involved in group activities. Off-peak times when most of the project members are absent can be left for the hardcore work on individual goals. A personal level of interaction can be made possible between employees by bringing them together on non-formal platforms like chats, social media groups, forums, cultural gathering, and so on to encourage them to build relationships. Physical gatherings may also be encouraged from time to time to enhance coordination. While interactive sessions are introduced between team members, good opportunities must be provided to team members for active interaction such as through kick-off meetings, brainstorming sessions, conflict resolution sessions, new team member orientation program, milestone meetings and deliverable completion celebrations(Silva Silva, 2011). References Azimi, D., 2011. Virtual Project Collaboration, s.l.: NTNU. Barker, D., 2001. Virtual Project Office Project Extranets, s.l.: Project Magazine. Fisher, K. Fisher, M. D., 2001. The Distance Manger: A Hands-On Guide to Managing Off-Site Employees and Virtual Teams. New York: McGraw-Hill. Par', G. Dub, L., 2000. Virtual Teams: an Exploratory study of key challenges and strategies, Qubec, Canada: cole des Hautes tudes Commerciales de Montral. Rolfes, M., 2001. Virtual Project Management, s.l.: UMSL. Silva, M. Silva, S. d., 2011. Collaborative Project Management - Issues, methods and tools, s.l.: Universit de Strasbourg .

Weapons of Mass Deception the Uses of Propaganda in Bushs War on Iraq Essay Example

Weapons of Mass Deception: the Uses of Propaganda in Bushs War on Iraq Essay Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bushs War on Iraq By Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber As the Bush Administrations rationales for going to war with Iraq continue to unravel, questions are ‘finally’ being asked about how they got into the mess in the first place. How could an invasion of Iraq based on administration-orchestrated misinformation, disinformation and outright lies have been sold to the American people? Who did the selling? And what are its ramifications for democratic discourse and/or future American overseas adventures? These are just some of the issues tackled in â€Å"Weapons of Mass Deception. † Weapons of Mass Deception, gives a deconstruction of the layers of a complex propaganda machine that transcends administrations and political parties and profoundly shapes our perception of reality. This book is dangerous; Rampton and Stauber see through the spin and the spin around the spin. They run PR Watch (www. prwatch. org), an on-line publication that documents how governments and corporations daily insinuate themselves into our psyches—or try to. In this remarkably equitable, well-documented book, one learns about the people and the motivations behind the multiple messages, repeated phrases, and battles for global hearts and minds that make up a huge part of the War on Terrorism. While most Americans assume that the truth is slippery in the hands of politicians, few realize the role of public relations firms, doublespeak, and branding enumerated in this book. Yet the corporate-style marketing, Disney- designed sets, and Hollywood-influenced messages that work so well to sell products—the buying of which is sold to us as patriotic—aren’t working so well on the global stage. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century,† write Rampton and Stauber, â€Å"attempts to market the United States [abroad] as ‘brand freedom’ came into conflict with a U. S. tendency to talk rather than listen, combined with U. S. support of undemocratic regimes whose own political objectives contradicted A merica’s stated principles. † One may be familiar with some of the issues discussed in Weapons of Mass Deception, but the books drops the veil on a number of stories that have not been covered adequately or not reported at all by the mainstream media. We will write a custom essay sample on Weapons of Mass Deception: the Uses of Propaganda in Bushs War on Iraq specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Weapons of Mass Deception: the Uses of Propaganda in Bushs War on Iraq specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Weapons of Mass Deception: the Uses of Propaganda in Bushs War on Iraq specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Of particular interest is the books focus on the critical role of public relations companies hired by the government to sell the war. For starters, Rampton and Stauber remind readers about the PR campaign masterminded by Hill Knowlton for the first war in the Gulf. Though the babies-torn-from–incubators story has become infamous within the PR community, few Americans understand how (much less why) their perceptions were managed at that time and how their perceptions about various Islamic states and leaders have been managed ever since. As recently as January 2003, for example, in an opinion poll conducted by Knight-Ridder newspapers, half of the people surveyed still believed that one or more of the September 11 terrorist hijackers were Iraqi citizens. In fact, none were from Iraq. The Rendon Groups information war Weapons of Mass Deception takes a close look at the Rendon Group, a relatively unknown yet powerful public relations outfit that has had its imprint all over U. S. -Iraqi affairs for more than a decade. Founded by John Rendon, a former consultant to the campaigns of Democratic Party politicians Michael Dukakis and Jimmy Carter, the company has worked uring the past decade on behalf of clients including the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1996, Rendon boasted to an audience of cadets at the U. S. Air Force Academy that during the first Gulf War he had been responsible for providing the hand-held American flags and flags of other coalition countries to the people of Kuwait City so they co uld greet the U. S. Marines when they arrived. Saddam Hussein was the beloved ally of the senior Bush Administration right up until the point he decided he could go in and take over the oil fields in Kuwait, John Stauber told Amy Goodman, in a recent interview. Part of the PR campaign against Saddam twelve years ago was, the relatively easy task of, turning him into an evil dictator. According to the book, after the war, during the first year of Rendons post-war contract with the CIA It spent more than $23 million, producing videos, comic books ridiculing Saddam, a traveling photo exhibit of Iraqi atrocities, and two separate radio programs that broadcast messages from Kuwait into Iraq, mocking the regime and calling on Iraqi army officers to defect. The Rendon Groups most significant project was helping to organize the Iraqi National Congress (INC) in 1992. The INC is described as a coalition of Kurds and Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites Arabs, secularists and Islamists, liberal democrat s, old-style nationalists and ex-military officers. Ahmed Chalabi, the colorful Rendon protege was appointed to head the group in October 1992. ABC News Peter Jennings reported in 1998 that the Rendon Group not only came up with the [groups] name, but also passed along more than $12 million of CIA money to the organization. In the fall of 2001, barely a month after 9/11, the Pentagon gave the Rendon Group a four-month, $397 thousand contract to handle PR aspects of the U. S. military strike in Afghanistan. Within a few months Rendon was assisting the Pentagons new propaganda agency, the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI). Although the OSI was forced to disband over a spate of bad publicity, Rendon kept its Pentagon contract. Rendon Group staff refused to discuss its Pentagon work with the press, claiming it was operating under a confidentiality/nondisclosure agreement. One incident during the war itself provided a rare breach in the wall of secrecy. The incident involved the murder of TV cameraman Paul Moran by a suicide bomber in northern Iraq in late March. His obituary, published in his hometown of Adelaide, Australia, noted that Morans activities included working for an American public relations company contracted by the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency to run propaganda campaigns against the d ictatorship. John Rendon attended Morans funeral in Adelaide. September surprise From a marketing point of view, you dont introduce new products in August, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. told the New York Times in September 2002. Rampton and Stauber write: Card was explaining what the Times characterized as a meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress and the allies, of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein. â€Å" From that point forward, the administration rolled out a heavy arsenal of misinformation, disinformation, and highly dubious intelligence to sell the war to the American people†. The late-March invasion of Iraq was clearly the culmination of this campaign of â€Å"perception management. † Post-war planning was obviously not nearly as attentive to details. After manufacturing pre-war consent, the administration has been confronted with a number of unexpected challenges including chaos and instability, a burgeoning guerilla resistance, and mounting U. S. casualties. At home, the Bush Administration continues to receive criticism about ginned up intelligence and the failure to find Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction. Among the lessons gleaned from Weapons of Mass Deception is how this administration readily pulls together a dream team of spin masters and storytellers government agencies, highly paid public relations firms, political hacks, and a willing media to market its message. Effective Public Relations In their eye-opening new expose, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq, Rampton and Stauber reveal — headline by headline, news show by news show, press conference by press conference — the deliberate, aggressive, and highly successful public relations campaign that sold the Iraqi war to the American public. April 9th seemed to confirm what Washington and pro-war pundits had been saying for months: that the Iraqi people would eventually come to see America as their liberator, not their enemy. Yet the American media chose to focus on headlines such as Iraqis Celebrate in Baghdad (Washington Post) rather than on a Reuters long-shot photo of Firdos Square showing it to be nearly empty, or the Muslim cleric who was assassinated by an angry crowd in Najaf for being too friendly to the Americans, or the 20,000 Iraqis in Nasiriyah rallying to oppose the U. S. military presence. We’ve always known what good PR and advertising could do for a new line of sneakers, cosmetics, or weight-loss products. In Weapons of Mass Deception, Rampton and Stauber show us a brave new shocking world where savvy marketers, information warriors, and perception managers can sell an entire war to consumers. Indeed, Washington successfully brought together the world’s top ad agencies and media empires to create Operation: Iraqi Freedom — a product no decent, patriotic citizen could possibly object to. With meticulous research and documentation, Rampton and Stauber deconstruct this and other true lies behind the war:  ·Top Bush officials advocated the invasion of Iraq even before he took office, but waited until September 2002 to inform the public, through what the White House termed a product launch.  ·White House officials used repetition and misinformation — the big lie tactic — to create the false impression that Iraq was behind the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, specially in the case of the alleged meeting in Prague five months earlier between 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence officials.  ·The big lie tactic was also employed in the first Iraq war when a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah told the horrific — but fabricated — story of Iraqi soldiers wrenching hundreds of premature Kuwaiti babies from their incubators and leaving them to die. Her testimony was printed in a press kit prepared by Citiz ens for a Free Kuwait, a PR front group created by Hill and Knowlton, then the world’s largest PR firm. In order to achieve third party authenticity in the Muslim world, a group called the Council of American Muslims for Understanding launched its own web site, called OpenDialogue. com. However, its chairman admitted that the idea began with the State Department, and that the U. S. government funded the group.  ·Forged documents were used to prove that Iraq possessed huge stockpiles of banned weapons.  ·A secretive PR firm working for the Pentagon helped create the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which became one of the driving forces behind the decision to go to war. What Rampton and Stauber would like Americans to know is that the freedom of speech that is seen to be the essence of democracy also grants the freedom to lie. Thus, a necessary skill for those who aspire to a better, livable world is to be able to discriminate between fact and fabrication. Weapons of Mass Deception also makes it clear that it is important to know who is footing the bill for the vast amount of misinformation that is broadcast—be it the Pentagon, the CIA, a client state, multinational corporation, or other entity. The authors also take us on a tour of the propaganda tactics used by the U. S. government on its own people. This effort has been more effective than its propaganda abroad, thanks to a largely docile domestic press. They make clear that the 2003 Iraq war (as well as the one in 1991) was sold to the public based on questionable distortions and sometimes outright lies planted by public relations firms. Once these lies are repeated in the echo chamber of the media, they become â€Å"truth. † Conclusion While the book is a meticulous snapshot of what lay beneath the surface of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it invites further exploration. It gives citizens—including those who may disagree with the authors’ assumptions—useful tools to understand the war on terrorism and its relationship to products such as SUVs, marketed as â€Å"urban assault luxury vehicles† to make the reptilian part of our brain feel more safe, even though the vehicles are not so safe, and even as our increased gas guzzling fuels the terrorism we say we’re fighting. The book invites viewers, listeners, and readers to examine how various media filter points of view, and whether media actually offer opportunities for dialogue between multiple points of view. It notes how many â€Å"experts† tend to be from think tanks sponsored by corporations or foundations whose allegiances give them a common perspective on current power structures. After a description of government secrecy (even between government agencies which â€Å"need to know† if they are to protect us) and the fear-based (and fear-inducing) Patriot Act, Rampton and Stauber conclude: â€Å"Democracy and the free sharing of information †¦ may offer our best protection against future terrorist threats. Paradoxically, this is precisely what we may surrender if we allow fear to rule our lives. † As we figure out for ourselves what it means to be â€Å"we the people† fighting terror that comes from inside and outside our government in these dark days, books like this cut through the misinformation haze to help us determine our own best take on truth—by exploring multiple perspectives and learning from each other’s experience. The new information environment, exploited to a limited degree by government and corporate propagandists, can be wielded by citizens to find our way out of our current propaganda quagmire. Reviews Weapons of Mass Deception is the first book to expose the aggressive public relations campaign used to sell the American public on the war with Iraq, why and how the American public was made to buy the war. Reviews:  ·No more bed-time stories hese guys are here to wake you up. Greg Palast  ·A major contributions for those who want to take control of their own future not be passive subjects of manipulation and control. Noam Chomsky About the book  ·Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher (July 1, 2003)  ·ISBN: 1585422762  ·Average Customer Review: ***** based on 51 reviews.  ·Amazon. com Sales Rank in Books: #50,736 References:  ·www. amazon. com  ·www. prwatch. com  ·www. inthesetimes. com