While I was checking the latest news on my iPhone on my way back home from work, I came across a very interesting video report about the latest propaganda war appearing on some Iraqi TV channels.According to CNN, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s satellite channel “Afaq” is broadcasting images of Saddam’s regime’s horrific torture methods that were used against many innocent Iraqis and political opponents. Images of beheadings and torture are connected to the election campaign Maliki is running in with a slate called, “The State of Law Coalition.”
This left me thinking deeply about how fierce the elections campaign has become. It looks like the old-fashioned bribing method candidates still use to buy votes is no longer that effective. Apparently, gruesome images are more powerful. I think they are.
I’m wondering if this is the right time to show such images on TV when Iraqis are forcing themselves to forget their past and move on with their lives to salvage whatever remained in this country and build a better life among each other. The wounds of the years of civil war are still fresh and the last thing we need now is to open them again.
I wonder if what Salih Al Mutlak, the banned Sunni politician, said is true that they are doing this “because they don’t have anything else to deliver to the people.” It kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?
Click on the video below to view the entire report!
