The girl to the left, “Nayirah,” was presented to the American public in 1991 as a Kuwaiti citizen who witnessed atrocities committed by Iraqi soldiers. She claimed that they had entered a hospital and taken babies from incubators and thrown them on the floor to watch them die. It was a lie, of course, and later we learned that Nayirah was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah, the Kuwait ambassador to the US, and that the whole scene was orchestrated before congress by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, working for the Kuwaiti government.
It was a scam, but that is not important. It worked, and by the time we discovered the hoax, it was far too late. Rather we need to concentrate on these three issues:
- It’s common;
- members of congress and the White House were in on it, and
- the mainstream media knew about it. (If not, they are quite inept and useless.)
More important, as we look backwards, is that the stage play was used as agitprop for an aggressive attack on Iraq, a savage attack on civilians and infrastructure. It worked. It wasn’t until 1992 that we learned the truth of that affair, and by then, it was far too late. (I pay little attention to American news, not good, but I’d be willing to bet that unless Tim Russert or Dan Rather (both since removed) made mention of this matter, it’s never been exposed in the mainstream.)
There’s no pressure to be truthful in these matters, and public opinion is merely another factor in war that has to be controlled. The encouraging thing is this: The time frame for exposure of hoaxes is narrowing. Take the photo below: 
On August 30, John Kerry presented referred to** this photo* as evidence of a Syrian chemical attack on its own people. In the foreign media, the photo was quickly exposed to be one taken by Marco di Lauro of AP in Iraq in 2003. And the irony, if that is even an appropriate word, is that the bodies are of victims of American bombs that were part of an American-supported attack on Iraqi Shiites in the post Gulf War period.
The American public is still mostly held hostage by the American mainstream media, mostly television. Fringes are controlled by talk radio, the right-wing allowing any nonsense through the gate, but the “left” carefully guarded by right wingers posing as liberals, or liberals too timid to talk back. So even those who escaping from mainstream news are caught in another trap.
There is additional protection for power as well, an aspect of propaganda. It’s a given that the domestic population automatically disbelieves the words of enemies. This well-known fact is exploited by all countries everywhere. Often the words of enemies are allowed to penetrate our media, usually in “scare quotes,” knowing they will be disbelieved. So the photo presented by Kerry will have its intended effect on a large percentage of the population. Attempts to expose it as fraud will be automatically marginalized. (Readers of this blog who are skeptical of my views have already set the matter aside, assuming the article I link to below* is a lie.)
However, and this is the wholesome and encouraging message I take home with me on the Syrian affair: The Obama Administration has been inept. They pulled off the Libyan massacre with frightening efficiency. Perhaps they got cocky, or they miss Hillary. That is short-term good news. The bad news is that the next administration will be better, and wars will be led by better liars and propaganda will not be so easily exposed. But for now, it is good to know that we have clowns in the State Department and White House. Heads will roll, but that is only short-term gratification.
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*The whole of the article from which I clipped the picture talks about a major troop mobilization in Turkey three days before the event, and how Syrian troops unearthed the weapons. A hacked email exchange between “MShapiro” and Jennifer MacDonald, wife of Col. Anthony J. MacDonald, General Staff Director, Operations and Plans Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence the US Army Staff, reads as follows:
M.SHAPIRO: I can’t stop thinking about that terrible gas attack in Syria now. Did you see those kids? I was really crying- They were poisoned, they died. When is it over? I see their faces when in sleep. What did Tony say you about this?
J.MACDONALD: I saw it too and got afraid very much. But Tony comforted me. He said the kids weren’t hurt, it was done for cameras. So you don’t worry, my dear.
M.SHAPIRO: I’m still thinking about those Syrian kids. Thanks God, they are alive. I hope they got a kind of present or some cash.
Probably cash. It’s the American free enterprise system at work.
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**Kerry said he had seen photos of bodies line up in white shrouds, and this photo is the only one presenting such an image. It was also used by the BBC in 2012 for the same purpose, to demonize the Assad government. The photo is of bodies exhumed in the desert south of Baghdad in 1991.
A little history: When the US attacked Iraq in 1991, the country was devastated and Saddam Hussein’s choke hold on the population was threatened. But the US, not yet ready for full-scale invasion (Iraq had a formidable arsenal at that time), wanted the hold to continue. Uprisings against the Baath government erupted among Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north. The US stepped back and gave Saddam permission to used captured weaponry, most notably helicopter gunships, to suppress the rebellions. This di Lauro photo is of Shiite victims of that massacre.
(I will never forget that the PR branch of the Pentagon at that time put out a call for blankets for Kurds freezing in the mountains who were under attack. The US had all the weaponry they needed to devastate the country, killing tens of thousands of innocent people, destroying the civilian infrastructure including hospitals, schools, bridges, dams, farms and factories. But they were fresh out of blankets. I had a letter published in the Billings Gazette with words to that effect on a Sunday. The next morning I went out and found my car drenched in oil-based paint, over $1,000 in damage. Apparently I had touched a nerve.)
Piece of Mindful 