Mass Deception : : Moral Panic and the U.S. War on Iraq / / Scott A. Bonn.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Bonn, Scott A.,
• MitwirkendeR: Welch, Michael,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Critical Issues in Crime and Society
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 p.) :; 12

The attacks of 9/11 led to a war on Iraq, although there was neither tangible evidence that the nation's leader, Saddam Hussein, was linked to Osama bin Laden nor proof of weapons of mass destruction. Why, then, did the Iraq war garner so much acceptance in the United States during its primary stages? Mass Deception argues that the George W. Bush administration manufactured public support for the war on Iraq. Scott A. Bonn introduces a unique, integrated, and interdisciplinary theory called "critical communication" to explain how and why political elites and the news media periodically create public panics that benefit both parties. Using quantitative analysis of public opinion polls and presidential rhetoric pre- and post-9/11 in the news media, Bonn applies the moral panic concept to the Iraq war. He critiques the war and occupation of Iraq as violations of domestic and international law. Finally, Mass Deception connects propaganda and distortion efforts by the Bush administration to more general theories of elite deviance and state crime.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Chapter 1. George W. Bush and the Drums of War -- Chapter 2. Why Do Many in Society Drink the Kool-Aid Served in a Moral Panic? -- Chapter 3. Empirical Evidence of an Elite-Engineered Moral Panic over Iraq -- Chapter 4. How the Bush Administration Sold the Iraq War to the U.S. Public -- Chapter 5. The Power Elite, State Crime, and War Crime -- Chapter 6. The Higher Immorality and Crimes of the Bush Administration -- Chapter 7. What Are the Lessons of the Iraq War? -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author