MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - A Western media propaganda war is already underway in advance of a deeper US-UK engagement with the Islamic State (IS) militant group, said British corporate media analyst and Media Lens co-editor David Edwards.
“Typically, when the US or US-UK alliance is planning to attack an enemy, Western corporate media fill up with claims (some real, some fabricated) of human rights abuses - atrocities, planned atrocities, illegal weapons use and so on - by that enemy,” David Edwards told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Asked whether the media barrage focused on the threat of IS was a new propaganda war, Edwards responded, “Yes, it is a new phase in a long-standing corporate propaganda war.”
Since the first airstrikes against IS were launched by Barack Obama in early August, the US has conducted approximately 115 strikes in Iraq. American military officials have been investigating targets in Syria as well.
The UK, the main partner of the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has not made an official decision about joining US airstrikes against IS. However, British Prime Minister David Cameron noted on Monday that he would take time at the upcoming NATO summit to discuss joining US airstrikes.
In a Tuesday article, Media Lens commented on the bias of Western journalists to only view their governments' actions as mistakes, rather than as potential war crimes. The publication argued, that “the editors can perceive 'ignorance and incompetence' in Western actions but not self-interested criminality.”
While Edwards and Media Lens are highly critical of US and UK propaganda and interventionist wars, he in no way condones the actions of IS or other regimes who conduct actual human rights abuses.
The IS, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS or ISIL), an al-Qaeda offshoot, was fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad, and launched a large-scale offensive in Iraq in June, seizing large parts of the country.
In June, the group declared itself a “caliphate,” changed its name to the Islamic State and claimed religious authority over all Muslims globally.
In August, the United States authorized airstrikes to help Bagdad fight against IS positions in Iraq.
