War against Iraq by Olivier Gaudreau When the United States began the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it provided the justification that the dictator Iraqi Saddam had aided the perpetrators of the September 11 attack invasion on US soil. The Bush administration also accused Saddam of masterminding a nuclear program and stockpiling destructive weapons. All US justifications and the entire war have been strongly criticized on many fronts. The media took the lead in shaping public opinion on both sides of the war, i.e. the United States or rather North America and the Middle East. It is a fact that citizens are able to understand an issue such as the Iraq war through the perspective of the media (Al-Rawi, 2013). This article focuses on the media, their representation of war and the effects of their perspective. The American media's portrayal of the war in Iraq The Bush administration stated that it intended to protect the American people from Saddam's imminent or future attacks from weapons of mass destruction. They also stated that their goal was to establish much-needed democracy in Iraq. What is surprising is that these topics have not been questioned as they should by the US media. The war in Iraq has been described as US versus Iraq or Bush versus Saddam. The perception assumed that the only actors were Bush and Saddam and that the goal was to win the war. The media coverage only showed the fact that Saddam's regime posed a threat to world peace and that the only solution was to go to war (Miller and Gordon, 2002). It failed to highlight past relations between the United States and Iraq, such as the 1991 war, and its consequences on the Iraqi people over the decades. Coverage focused only on past relations between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. The US media might have considered… half the paper… Kumar, D. (2006). Media, War, and Propaganda: Information Management Strategies During the 2003 Iraq War. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Vol. 3(1). Pp 48-69. Luckhurst, R. (2012). In times of war: romanticizing Iraq. Contemporary literature, vol. 53(4). Pp.713-737.Miller, J., & Gordon, M.R. (2002). Threats and responses: the Baghdad Arsenal; The White House lists measures taken by Iraq to build banned weapons. New York Times. Rosenberg, D. (2013). The faces of the war in Iraq, ten years later. Slate.Sachs, S, (2003). A Nation at War: Middle East Coverage; Arab media describe the war as an extermination camp. New York Times.Soroka, S., Loewen, P., Fournier, P., & Rubenson, D, (2013). The impact of journalistic photos on support for military action. Canadian Election Study Working Paper Series, Vol. 2. Page 25-26. Szoldra, P. (2014). Tell me again: why did my friends die in Iraq? Slate.