description: The most important battle of the Iraq War didn't happen in Baghdad or al-Anbar. It happened every day on television, in newspapers, and on the Internet. It was the struggle between the US military and the insurgency for the will of the American people to prosecute the war. And the US military lost. The 2006 mid-term elections and the 2008 presidential election forced the US to withdrawal from Iraq, leaving its work there unfinished. How did it come to this point? How could the US military, the most powerful military force in the history of the world, be forced out of Iraq by “bands of thugs and terrorists”? It was not, as others have contended, bad strategic decisions, poor military planning or execution, or a biased or negligent media that made the enemy in Iraq so formidable. Rather, it was the revolutionary merging of terrorism, insurgency, and telecommunications: media-enabled insurgency. Pat Proctor is a US Army major who has served on the frontlines of the media war in Iraq. In addition to spending two years studying the media war for the Army, Pat was a key player in developing the communications strategy for General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker in Iraq in 2007. It is this unique perspective that Pat brings to "Media War: The Media-Enabled Insurgency in Iraq." You won;t just learn how the media covered the war in Iraq; you will also be treated to the inside story of how the US military and the insurgency fought to influence this coverage. This is a story that has never been told before.This book is the first work to bring together sources from the operational, “fighting” Army, military public affairs, and the media. The book includes interviews, with men like Colonel Boykins, the senior public affairs officer for General Petraeus, and the late John McWethy, former Senior Security Correspondent for ABC News. It also heavily references the writings of Army commanders in professional military journals about their experiences fighting the war in Iraq under the ever-present eye of the media. Media War takes a completely fresh look at the war, as a struggle between the US military and insurgency in Iraq for the will of the American people. Its conclusions will revolutionize the way America fights future wars.
language: English
title: Media War: The Media-Enabled Insurgency in Iraq