Bush’s Naval Academy Propaganda

by Jason Galde

On November 30th, 2005 President Bush gave a "war strategy" speech in front of a packed auditorium of U.S. Navy midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

It’s so much fun deconstructing such a masterpiece of well thought out propaganda as one of our fearless leader’s locker room speeches. The key element of the propaganda used here is Emotional Leverage. As defined by ”Propaganda 101: Mastery of the Dark Arts”, "Emotional Leverage is the use of imagery and rhetoric that produces powerful emotional responses within a target populace. By conjuring strong emotions (fear, hate, self interest, self importance, etc.) logical analysis resulting in intelligent debate [is] quickly replaced with blind obedience or servile capitulation."

First, we look at the imagery used. The choice of venue was critical. By panning cameras around a room full of cheering, well-groomed midshipman the audience (you) gets an immediate feeling that our nation’s military personnel are in firm support of the President’s plan. I was in the Navy and I can tell you that these things are rigged to looked just so. Those midshipmen have all been indoctrinated to respect their Commander in Chief no matter how they feel about his policy. That’s the way the military works and it works well.

We didn’t see any big signs saying, "Mission Accomplished" behind the President this time. That sign was a PR mistake because it was far too direct for the target audience. Instead, they regurgitated old World War Two type signage that is vague and ambiguous. "Plan for Victory" can mean many different things to many different people on any given day. Its definition can be manipulated at will, yet it always stirs nationalistic pride in most red-blooded Americans. After all, who doesn’t want to be victorious? Bush’s use of a large pulpit leveraged subconscious respect most people have for their priest or minister.

The President didn’t waste any time evoking 9/11. After his introduction, his first statement was, "This is the first year that every class of midshipmen at this Academy arrived after the attacks of September the 11th, 2001." This is Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for his speechwriters. It leverages the emotional connection Americans have to that fateful day. The idea is to move the audience out of an intellectual state and into an emotional state so that they can be better influenced.

He then pumped up the crowd a little and introduced a bunch of brass. This is what ”Propaganda 101: Mastery of the Dark Arts” defines as Testimonial Propaganda. By surrounding himself with important supporters, the audience will subconsciously lend the President more credibility.

Then it was time to invoke "global war on terror" rhetoric. Just like previous wars against vague nouns such as the "war on drugs" and the "war against poverty," this "war" isn’t even a war by definition. Sure, there are a lot of bullets flying around but there is no clearly defined enemy. There are no battle lines or even any sort of conventional enemy command structure. The "war on terror" is an eternal war by nature in that an ideology can never truly be eliminated. It is a philosophical struggle that escalates only through the use of violence. But it makes for great propaganda.

Bush goes on to say, "As we fight the enemy in Iraq, every man and woman who volunteers to defend our nation deserves an unwavering commitment to the mission - and a clear strategy for victory." This pulls on people’s guilt heartstrings. It implies that if people don’t support his policy of eternal warfare then we are spitting on the poor troops who are just doing their honorable duty.

Then Bush defined his exit strategy. His strategy is so full of vague generalizations and contradictions that my head was numb by the time I finished studying it. And that is exactly what the propagandist’s goal is. They want you to walk away saying, "Yea, now that’s a good strategy." Even though you don’t have a clue what he was really talking about. As stated throughout ”Propaganda 101: Mastery of the Dark Arts”, control relies heavily on confusion. By talking in circles, the way Bush did with his "strategy" his audience can be sure of a mild migraine if they try to find logic in it.

What is Bush’s war strategy? Well if it was a chess game, his strategy would be to smash the chess set with a jack hammer, then buy a new one that is already set up with all of his opponents in checkmate. Good thinking George!

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were in when we created them."
Albert Einstein