War Made Easy Analysis

“War Made Easy” Analytical Summary In “War Made Easy” , narrator Sean Penn steers us to look at American military conflicts from the perspective of the hard sell. Media/political critic Norman Solomon accuses the Bush administration of using misleading language, news manipulation, half-truths and complete lies to win public support for military actions of questionable necessity. In the film, Solomon’s argument is that this distortion of the truth or, at the very least a disassociation from the facts, is put forth by the media to cash in on hysteria and, knowingly or unknowingly, assist the government’s underhanded political maneuvering. The documentary starts back in the 1960s with Vietnam, exploring the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident, soon weaving through Nixon, Regan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush II to expose the routine of each administration, as they justify combat to keep the profitable war machine humming. “War Made Easy” opens fire on the media and their overall absolute carelessness. Solomon’s argument is an obvious one in that corporate news is impossible to trust. The networks, Fox, MSNBC, and CNN are all targeted here as leeches of the establishment, more consumed with creating elaborate war coverage intro graphics than even making a mild attempt to address the realities of conflict. “War Made Easy” has really opened my eyes to how uninformed our country really is. In a part of the film they said it's reported that while civilians made up 10% of WWI's casualties, they have crept up ever since to 90% in today's Iraq. That is absolutely tragic, and something must be done to put a stop to the misleading propaganda we are all being