In
the past, military conflicts have been preceded by acts of aggression involving
the occupation of land or resources, ethnic violence or stealing Helen away
from her domineering husband. But today, the precursor of an armed invasion is often
a concerted campaign of mis-information and a body of evidence that
substantiates the eventual decision to take action against “the evil ones”.
Past
experiences have included testimony to a US congressional committee that
Kuwaiti children were tipped out of their incubators by Iraqi soldiers and left
to die on the floor. It was this testimony, of a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl that
tugged at the heartstrings of the American public and was the public relations
coup that effectively sanctioned the US led 1990-1991 invasion of Iraq ( click here for a full account of this story). It was
subsequently discovered that the girl was actually the daughter of the Kuwaiti
ambassador to Washington and had never been to Kuwait during the period in
question.