Overview

The Iraq war has produced profound changes within the United States, changes manifested by popular discontent with the war. On one hand, U.S. culture finds its own ideological reflection in the Iraq war; on the other hand, U.S. media repeatedly critique the social and political forces that produce the war. These multiple and contradictory assessments have been characterized by intensified imagery and narratives, an escalation that is in part a function of the new communications technologies used to generate them. This book examines the images and stories emerging from the Iraq war, from video games that retell its battles, the representations of Arab people in American film history, and U.S. war documentaries, to parody and memoir and photographs from Abu Ghraib.