Bush's Public Opinion Manipulation Efforts For The 2003 Iraq War

Public opinion assumes great importance to the U.S. foreign policy making in thepost-cold war era, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The growing importanceof public opinion has generated massive public opinion manipulation efforts by theBush Administration for its 2003 Iraq war. A stark contrast between the American andthe world public opinion over the war, and a false rationale for starting the war makethe 2003 Iraq war a case worth close srutinization to see the impact of themanipulation efforts of the president on the formation of public opinion.Public opinion is not static, and people's views about an issue can develop andchange over time from disconnected, poorly informed reactions to more thoughtfuland considered conclusions, from changeable public opinion to settled publicjudgment. The analysis of the impact of the manipulation efforts of the BushAdministration on the formation of public opinion for the 2003 Iraq war indicates: themanipulation efforts of the president, when on an adequate or more than adequatescale, would be very effective in drawing the attention of the public to an issue andevoking a sense of great urgency in the public to do something about the issue;as theissue develops, the public would be unwilling to accept the unpleasant consequencesbrought about by the actions taken to deal with the issue, and it is hard for themanipulation efforts to take effect at this stage;then the public would weigh the prosand cons of the alternatives for dealing with the issue, and if, in light of the newrealities of the issue, the public decides that solutions offered by the president are notacceptable, the manipulation efforts of the president would be futile and wasted;whenthe public comes to a judgment of the issue intellectually, morally and emotionally,there is little room left for the manipulation efforts of the president to be effective.