Abstract
The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard achieved a certain notoriety with his trilogy of articles on the 1991 Persian Gulf War, declaring in advance that the war would “not take place”; asking, once it had started, if it was “really taking place”; and maintaining afterward that it “did not take place.” His hyperbolic claims attracted much criticism. Yet, as a number of commentators have remarked, Baudrillard’s analysis of the 1991 conflict seems even more pertinent to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 1991, for instance, Baudrillard described how Saddam Hussein’s military strength was exaggerated by:
[B]randishing the threat of a chemical war, a bloody war, a world war everyone had their say—as though it were necessary to give ourselves a fright, to maintain everyone in a state of erection for fear of seeing the flaccid member of war fall down.
[B]randishing the threat of a chemical war, a bloody war, a world war everyone had their say—as though it were necessary to give ourselves a fright, to maintain everyone in a state of erection for fear of seeing the flaccid member of war fall down.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Leading to the 2003 Iraq War |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Global Media Debate |
| Editors | Alexander Nikolaev, Ernest Hakanen |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Chapter | 5 |
| Pages | 85—96 |
| ISBN (Print) | 1403971137 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
