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Response 5

Page history last edited by toma 12 years, 5 months ago

 

In a response of around 250 words (feel free to add as much as you'd like), please identify one primary argument, and several secondary arguments or claims (supporting arguments, competing arguments, or contradictory arguments) you think that Lappe and Goldman are trying to make in Shooting War.  Post these on this page or in the comment boxes.

 

Dillon Fitzgerald

 

The War on Terror is not only one of the most discussed topics today, but also one of the most controversial. The graphic novel titled “Shooting War” takes a very interesting approach on presenting how they feel about it. In this novel, Lappe and Goldman argue that the American government and media is corrupt and untruthful through the use of a fictional field reporter Jimmy Burns’ experience in Iraq.  Another argument that is presented is that America feels the need to change everything and force our own views on to other countries, and in this case it caused Iraqi’s to turn on themselves.

            The idea that our own American government and media are corrupt is thoroughly presented in many different ways throughout the novel. During Jimmy’s time in Iraq he undergoes many devastating events, including when his helicopter goes down, his men are killed, and he is first kidnapped by Adallah. While he is kidnapped he is forced to get a live stream of Adallah’s message to America. Adallah made some bold statements about Americans, saying we have been killing all kinds of innocent people, bombing and destroying cities and civilizations, and even turning the Iraqi’s against one another. Now it is easy to tell that this man is an extremist, but this really opened Jimmy’s eyes and he even came to the realization that much of what Adallah is saying is true. This idea is reinforced later in the novel when Jimmy as well as a bunch of soldiers are located in Mogadishu. Many children are standing in the way of the American soldiers, and rather then getting these children to safety, they let them die. These are not Iraqi soldiers that they are up against either, it is just the Iraqi people fighting for their country, but the American soldiers kill them all, even the ones that did not present a threat. At the end of this section, the leader of the American troops says “There are no civilians in Baghdad.” This shows that this man has no remorse for killing all of these people, and says that he is just “taking orders.” This really opens up Jimmy’s eyes and helps him see that maybe what Adallah was saying is true. Adallah and his group “Muhammad’s Sword” present pure hatred for the American troops. But after all, the troops are only as corrupt as the ones giving the orders, the government. At the same time as all this is happening, the media, in this case Global News is filtering through Jimmy’s footage to present only what they want America to see. They show the killing of American soldiers and other brutal deaths of American’s raising a hatred for Iraq, when really they do not know they other side of the story.

 

Toma' Blue-

 

In the Graphic Novel "Shooting War" I found it to be really cool and fun. The comic is surrounded by a character named, Jimmy Burns. He is the main source for the story and he's very interesting. I think the claim for the comic/novel was to show that technology and blog sites can be helpful and useful for critical times, even when it wasn't meant to be used in that way. The Government and Media as well can get credit for broadcasting something that they didnt even go out and analyze for themselves. The story line revolves around a bombing that took place underneath Jimmys residence, this had changed his life in a huge way. Although he blogged what happend and let the world know that help was needed, he didnt really intend for it to go global and have success. The media basically took his footage of the onsight bombing and broadcasted it as if one of their very own reporters were standing right there to relay what happend to the society. Jimmy does go through many other events during the story as well. Jimmy went to Iraq which didnt end up to be much fun at all. He lost his helicopter, his men were murdered, and he got kidnapped by a guy named Adallah. Jimmy had tp be put on live tv to let America know the message that Adallah had for them. This story really did put alot of thoughts into my mind.

 

 

Colton Dale -

 

     Well, this graphic novel, called "Shooting Wars,” is certainly an interesting one.  The story focuses on the somewhat realistic, yet fictional experiences of the main character, Jimmy Burns, who is, at the beginning, an independent video-blogger.  For the creators of this illustrative novel, Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman, the main objective is to convey and uncover the corrupt behavior of the media and the government.  They really take a stiff jab at main-stream media and the American government by arguing that both of these bodies together are hiding the truth about the war on terror.

     One specific example of how they attack main-stream media is when in Chapter 2, parts 4 through 9, Jimmy Burns is being interviewed on a news station about the horrific terror attack that he had witnessed, and caught on camera, earlier that day.  The lady interviewing him seems to be so fake and careless towards Jimmy and his well-being, she cuts him off while speaking a few times, as well showing no sympathy to his situation.  This is, perhaps, to portray the overall carelessness of today’s media.  Main-stream media’s only daily objective is to ignorantly report the news and make a profit off of it, regardless of the well-being of their interviewees and audiences.  Lappe and Goldman do a great job of conveying this.

     Another example of how the writers argue against the government's actions towards the war on terror is when in the closing parts of chapter 7, and throughout chapter 8, the story goes to focus on an ambush on Jimmy and his crew.  The ambushers kill several civilians, some even being kids, as well as an American combatant, and injuring a few more.  This is supposed to show the reader that these atrocities are in fact occurring, which is bad enough.  Also, another point is that in chapter 9, the leader of this group of presumably American combatants, Lieutenant Colonel John Crowley, gets interviewed by Jimmy.  Crowley, ever so ignorantly says, "What happened was we just eliminated eight terrorists from the most vile, murderous terrorist organization operating in the Iraqi theater, I call that a good day".  He says this as if he just doesn't care that innocent civilian lives were lost.  This is to convey the ignorance of the US government.

     Anthony Lappe's and Dan Goldman's objective in creating this graphic novel was to convey and uncover corrupt behaviors of the media and the government.  In my opinion, they've done a good job of this and have properly used some strong rhetorical tools to persuade their audience towards their own biased views.

 

 

 

Amy Schneider-

Shooting War has arguments about the media and the Iraq war and how when putting them together you can get pretty corrupt. Personally having a V for Vendetta poster in my room and reading several Political graphic novels like the complete Persepolis, Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption, and of course I have read and own V for Vendetta and have not just seen the movie, political novels seem to be my guilty pleasure and well  these novels all have the same concept of corruptions and compared to the other graphic novels I have read Shooting War has very good points to its arguments.  He claims that the media is hiding the horrible parts of the Iraq war like how American soldiers kill women and children. Let’s be honest we aren’t in a war over in America so how do we know what is going on? Most people see the last war on American soil being the Civil War but on the contrary we still have wars going on today such as; the war on drugs, the war on gay marriage, the war on Political involvement, just to name a few. We see in these everyday wars that the people who were supposed to be the good guys aren’t always the good guys. In 1993, the united states ATF had a horrible mistake called Waco. The Waco fire being infamous for the mistake of the government. Being scared from the history of Jonestown, the ATF burned down a religious compound killing 76 innocent people. The people that were supposed to be protecting America destroyed one of its core values. But even Spiderman had a dark suit.  The media is hiding this from us and that’s what Shooting War is saying that the media is corrupt along with the government. The way that John McCain can’t get out of a war because of the amount of oil, money, and blood already put into the war is a poor excuse. It’s almost saying that if you were getting punched by your alarm clock every day you would keep it because it is of use to you and you spent money on it. I mean you already got hit this morning so why not suck it up and just keep it. Its these arguments that are well portrayed in the graphic novel Shooting War.

 

Comments (17)

perrinatisha said

at 5:25 pm on Oct 1, 2011

In the novel Shooting War, Lappe and Goldman use the experiences of Jimmy Burns to argue that the American Government is corrupt and is hiding the truth of the war on terror. Other arguments that are established through this novel are also the ideas that America does not know how to deal with other countries and even their own people and also how America forces their views on other peoples countries and religions.

A couple scenes from this novel can support these arguments. When Jimmy Burns was sent to work for the Global Network and become a reporter in the heart of Baghdad he found the truth that America was hiding. He saw people die right in front of him. He saw how America treated the people of Iraq. A scene that caught my eye was when the troops went into Baghdad and there were children in the streets and instead of moving these children out of the way, the soldiers decided to kill them, each and every one of them. After they killed them they proceeded to walk over them like nothing happened. Women were crying for their Children and Burns saw this and knew that this is what the American government was hiding, the truth.

When Burns was kidnapped by Abu Adallah, the most wanted terrorist by the American government, Abu explained that America has brought nothing but chaos and the chaos is spreading everywhere, across the whole of religion like a plague. Abu exclaims that Muslims are turning against Muslims, this is not Alllahs way and it must stop. Even though these terrorists are at fault, they are right. America has brought nothing but trouble and they do nothing to fix it.
Lappe and Goldman use these experiences and show that America is corrupt and the government is not helping in anyway but only making things worse. I think that Lappe and Goldman are trying to tell the readers that we can be the change in the world. We can end the racism and this hatred, it wont be easy, but it will be worth it.

Daree Shannon said

at 5:06 pm on Oct 2, 2011

Lappe and Goldman’s main argument in Shooting War is that America is not truthful when it comes to informing the public about that is going on in the government. They use the fictional character Jimmy Burns as a reporter to express this argument by assigning him to Baghdad, in hopes of a different perspective of war and terrorists. Another argument they are making in Shooting War is that American’s and other countries don’t have the same experience with war. In Baghdad is always at war and the people living there are in constant danger. Lappe and Goldman made Shooting War similar to the time when American was under attack with Arabs. In Shooting War America is under attack terrorists are blowing up buildings just like September 11, 2001 and instead of George W. Bush being the president they have John McCain as the president. Someone who clearly is similar to the former president.

Examples of this arguments in Shooting War is Chapter 1 part 7 when someone blew up the Star Bucks and Jimmy’s home was above it . In common with September 11th American’s were just minding their own business doing their daily routine and then our world got turned upside down. I really like the way it was drawn its very realistic. Jimmy was still recording when this explosion happened. Which made it even more crazy and bizarre.

Another example of this argument is Chapter 2 part 9 when Jimmy has his television debut and he’s just so shocked in upset when she asks him if he ever worked for a TV organization he replies “No I haven’t worked for a bullshit TV network.” Even though it’s an honor to be on television he’s so mad that his apartment was just blown up, he doesn’t know how to react. Many American’s felt the same way on September 11th they didn’t care about being on TV or getting famous they just wanted revenge on whomever was responsible for the attacks.

Derek Blanton said

at 5:41 pm on Oct 2, 2011

In the graphic novel The Shooting War, Writer Anthony Lappe' and artist Dan Goldman use the experiences of their character Jimmy Burns to push the argument that the government is highly corrupt and keeps a veil over the truth of what is really happening in the war on terror. They also argue Through Jimmy's perspective and word bubbles, the ongoing problems of the mexican immigration issue and the Iraqi war.

Throughout the entirety of this political satire, these arguments are firmly supported. Chapter 7 and 8 uses plenty of examples. It shows how the soldiers callously murdered the children in the streets simply because they would not move. This whole graphic novel basically presents the idea that America creates all of these problems, and they do nothing to fix it. That America tries to justify even its worse deeds or just covers them up.

Paul Elden said

at 10:18 pm on Oct 2, 2011

In the graphic novel Shooting War, a reporter by the name of Jimmy Burns is followed through an alternate reality about the War on Terror. There are many arguments about America and the American public, but I feel that the main point the authors are trying to make is that the American people are ignorant about war. This is accomplished in a variety of ways, one example being the scene when Bill O’Reilly says “Who’s behind this sick video? Jimmy Burns, of course….” This suggests that the focus of news isn’t content as much as it is propaganda. O’Reilly doesn’t much discuss the actual video Burns was forced to make, but instead places the blame directly on Burns. This argument can branch off into other arguments. For example, by saying that Americans are ignorant, it is also implied that they have no idea how to handle other countries or other people. An example from the novel can be found in chapter three on page fifteen. This is the scene where Burns records the video for Adallah. Adallah says things about Americans massacring his people, destroying his cities, and turning Muslims against one another. After the scene ends, Burns realizes that what Adallah said was true. This is supposed to give the reader the idea that these atrocities are already being committed in the real world. One other argument that is presented is about the American media reporting only on what they want report, this point leading back to the propaganda that Bill O’Reilly was spouting. In the scene where Burns is interviewed by the major news station, the reporter avoids Jimmy’s blog as a conversation piece and cuts him off whenever he tries to bring it up.

On a personal note, I found Shooting War a very enthralling piece. While I don’t agree with all the arguments the authors make, it was very interesting and I thought they presented it in an entertaining and witty way.

sasha said

at 8:25 pm on Oct 3, 2011

The primary argument that this novel makes is that the media and government sometimes abuse their power by taking advantage of people. They hide the truth about what is actually happening in the war, by telling the people corrupt news. The government is very skillful in their attempt to mask the gruesome realities. In the novel, the media makes Iraqis look like the villain; but when Jimmy meets with an extremist, the truth is revealed. The novelist explains that Americans are responsible for turning them against their own countrymen, which is the main reason they are fighting against the Americans.
The secondary argument in this novel is that America is guilty of making a victim of a once innocent citizen. In the novel, Burns is a guy that usually blogs about videos he makes on a daily basis. On one particular day he just happens to be blogging by his apartment when he is caught up in an explosion. At first he is petrified, but he soon realizes that he was videotaping the whole incident. A media corporation that found out about his video basically draws him into a three-year contract; and at first Burns is enraged at the idea, but Larry King pulls him into it by drawing harsh conclusions. Burns is deployed with other soldiers stationed in the war. He is kidnapped by an extremist, who asks him to go live with a video. Again the media strikes by putting down Burns in spite of the fact that he is the one whose life is put to true risk. This shows how the media abuses their powers and therefore put down the ones that are trying to help.

Travis Rodery said

at 9:08 pm on Oct 3, 2011

Writer Anthony Lappe and artist Dan Goldman, use the once little known three-year blogger now national news reporter Jimmy “Baby” Burns to portray many arguments going on based on the war in Iraq and terrorism in the graphic novel “The Shooting War”. There are three major argument presented in the text. The arguments include, the ongoing war in Iraq, the media is corrupt and bends the lines of a story to make it better to the public, and the corruption of the John McCain’s American government. There are many references to the corruption of the media. For example, The Global News Network would have done anything to get the footage from Jimmy Burns' camera and by anything they offer him money and a job as a field reporter. This is in line with the belief that our news networks only care about ratings and are willing to bend the truth of a story to get them. Another example is Jimmy Burns’s words to the camera, “My name is Jimmy Burns. I’m a liar, a fake, a fraud…I have lied and covered up the truth to protect my access, my ass, and my job.” This is explaining how almost all media that is watched and popular is somewhat made up or the truth is bent. Through the use of the character Abu Adallah, Lappe is able to point out many reasons why the war is the fault of the republicans from the American government. I thought that the Starbucks bombing was link to the bombing of 9/11 because it shows people all over the world watching, a man looking out through a window, and people asking if they see the smoke. I’m pretty sure that an apartment building blowing up would not make that big of scene.

Farah Sheikh said

at 9:25 pm on Oct 3, 2011

Shooting War portrays the truth of the war and what the media does not tell America. The author basically states that what we have been told is not the truth. We are only told the benefit and the good that is happening . For example chapter 8 explains that American soldiers went out killing children and women. The media never shows this happening. Personally I think we should all be told the truth and what is happening whether it is bad or good we should be informed because we all live here. Burns was assigned to be a reporter in Baghdad and found out the truth about the war and what is going on. Innocent children were being killed by the soldiers and they did not even help them which made it worse for them because now we know what is going on. The novel also explains when Burns was filming the explosion that happened to his apartment above Starbucks which was scary. Throughout the whole novel we just learn the truth behind everything and how much it hurts other people while the media portrays us as a good country. Some reporters such as Jimmy Burns do a good job explaining what is really going on to show us the truth.

Adam Klaser said

at 10:33 pm on Oct 3, 2011

Through the experiences of Jimmy Burns in the graphic novel “Shooting Wars”, Goldman and Lappe make the main argument that the main-stream media twists the news around to its own liking. They also make the argument that the U.S Government is corrupt in its actions. Throughout “Shooting War”, the authors argue that the main stream media twists the news around to its own liking to become favorable with the public. An example of this is when The Global News Network would take only the footage from Burn’s camera that showed Americans being beheaded or killed by Iraqis and not show the reality of American soldiers killing not only the terrorists but also innocent children. This proves that the main stream media only shows the half of the story that pleases the American public, and what also would make them have good ratings. Another example of how the media twists the news around is when Bill O’Reilly talks about how it was Jimmy Burns’ fault for the controversial video, instead of the video itself. This suggests that the media, when in possession of something controversial that goes against what they want to show, will avoid it and talk about something less important.

Also, Lappe and Goldman point out that the U.S Government is able to hide any negative realities about the war from the public by saying that the American soldiers are heroes and that they are saving countless of innocent civilians from the terrorists. However, the truth is revealed when Abu Adallah says that the American soldiers are massacring civilians, and turning his people against each other. Here the authors are suggesting that the U.S Government is hiding the truth about what really is going on in the war so they can please the public.

dw5149@wayne.edu said

at 10:52 pm on Oct 3, 2011

In the graphic novel Shooting War, author Anthony Lappe and artist Dan Goldman tell a story of a blogger turned news reporter who is thrown into the War on Terror. They make many arguments throughout the piece but one argument that I would like to point out is probably one of the smaller arguments made. In Chapters 7 though 9, Jimmy Burns is sent to report on a special forces unit mission to Mogadishu. The battalion is tricked by a group of children playing soccer and then ambushed, losing a member of their team. A child also dies and while the mother runs to the child, one of the team members spots a detonator on the child. At the end of the skirmish Jimmy reports a live feed interviewing Lt. Col. Crowley. Crowley says at the end of the interview that there are no civilians in Baghdad.
This winded set-up brings me to the arguments that “war is hell”. It’s an overused cliché, but it is so true. Throughout the “War on Terror”, the media has shown many innocent women and children dying because of the war. As unfortunate as this is, it is life or death for the soldiers as well. Terrorists utilize and exploit every weakness they can find with our forces. They will use women, children and anything else that will be able to catch us with our guard down. In a split second an officer will have to decide whether a child is just playing soccer or setting up an ambush. These decisions can mean life and death. I know that it would be so incredibly hard to have to make this decision. Live with the memory of killing an innocent child or possibly losing your own life, hence “war is hell”.
Lappe and Goldman do a great job depicting this argument by showing the child dying and the weeping mother reaching for the detonator that was on the boy. This was a very powerful scene and it really tugs hard on the emotions of the readers.

marielle frattaroli said

at 10:59 pm on Oct 3, 2011

“Shooting War,” a graphic novel by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman, is the story of a young video blogger, Jimmy Burns. His adventure starts when he is doing a live-feed broadcast from his phone and happens to catch a terrorist attack blowing up a Starbucks as well as several apartments, including his own. A news company, Global Network, sees Jimmy’s video and recruits him to send him to report on the war in Iraq. Through Jimmy’s experiences in the novel, we see the claims that the authors are trying to make. One of the claims being made is that the news and media are very corrupt and unreliable. We see this before Jimmy even makes it over to Iraq. After he catches the attack on camera and his home gets blown to shreds, he has an interview with a news station. The interviewer constantly interrupts him as though she doesn’t really care about what he is going through, she just wants to get to the juicy stuff. But that’s just how the news is today. They aren’t paid to be understanding or sympathetic, their just there to do their job, which is to tell the news. In short, we, the public, never ever receive the full story. Another strong example of this is when Iraqi troops ambushed the troop that Jimmy was with. This ambush took place in the middle of the streets where civilians and children were everywhere. The U.S Army didn’t even think twice about killing these people that weren’t even part of the war. As long as they killed a member of the enemy troop in the end, it was a successful day. To me, and I’m sure to a lot of other people as well, this came as very shocking. U.S citizens are made to believe that the Army is here to help us; that they are a good thing and that for the most part, they don’t go around killing innocent people. But that’s what the news tells us. They would never dare show us what’s really going on, would they?

Anisa said

at 12:22 am on Oct 4, 2011


Through this novel Shooting War by writers Lappe and Goldman proves a point that America’s secrets will always be kept secrets and the governments way of not informing the public of the latest threats and or war on terror has and will always be a difficult issue to be just thrown out at the public. This novel also ensures us that all those tv reporters and tv news channel are only up for grabs when it comes to money. It seems to me now more than ever you hear more about what the Kardashians and Britney Spears is up to than actually hearing about the war. As Jimmy Burns explained it, the news reporter was more interested in him being on TV rather than asking him about his life death situation. The media has taken advantage and will be taking advantage of the people. This novel illustrates how corrupt America and the government are. To be honest, so many things are kept behind closed doors, and from so many manipulated stories that are always on the news or the magazines , you cannot believe anything anymore.

Samey Abdulrub said

at 1:03 am on Oct 4, 2011

In the novel "Shooting War", I believe the main argument that are brought up by the author, Anthony Lappe, is that the media is showing Americans what they want to see and the government is corrupt by hiding the real truth of the war. Anthony gives many examples and supports his arguments in the graphic novel. One example that really caught my attention was when he mentioned how the soldiers would kill innocent children just because of the fact that they won't move. Instead of moving them aside they kill them without hesitation and walk over them like its just another day at work. Anthony successfully supports his argument about how the government is hiding the truth from Americans because we don't see that on television, we see what the government wants us to see. Through the experiences of Jimmy Burns, he basically shows and argues that America is the main cause of the problem and they are only making it worse with their actions of concealing the truth.

Hannah Livernois said

at 1:44 am on Oct 4, 2011

This thought provoking comic book pokes fun at one of the scariest real world issue of today. With the Middle East being a serious threat, more and more people are aware of the problems, we Americans face. The Shooting war is a satirical piece that pokes fun at how most of us get our information on the War of Terror. Its main claim is that news crews will do anything to make money and get ratings, even if it means twisting stories. As seen in chapter one, the news reporter covering Jimmy Burns’ ironic coverage, is more interested in how he got the coverage and his heroic behavior then what actually started the explosion. Thus, leaving the readers with their main argument Media does not always reports the truth. However, America is lucky because foreign countries like Italy, for example, can use media, which is often lies, to be used as evidence. This is why Amanda Knox was wrongly accused. Also, it has a hidden argument as well; Lappe and Goldman are trying to show readers the ticking-time-bomb of the business world, claiming that they were the main blame for our current recession. The final argument that I caught on to was the hidden republican bashing, pointing out most of America’s flaws on the obliviousness of the republican party and their eager hunt for money. Moreover, this all relates to my Project 2 book, “The world is Flat”. Ironically, most of the world’s citizens are ignorant of other cultures and what they know of said cultures is stereotypes, for example, Lappe and Goldman’s use of a middle eastern name for the terrorist. People need to open their eyes and explore the world because watching the news and reading the newspaper isn’t going to help you solve the world problem, but the understanding of the world will.

Ahmed Alshaibani said

at 6:42 am on Oct 4, 2011

Lappe and Goldman chose a very controversial and sensitive topic to discuss in Shooting War. The war in Iraq tends to muster up a mix of emotion from people of all walks o life. The main argument that Lappe and Goldman argue is how the American government is hiding the truths about what’s going on in the war from the general public. The successfully do this through the use of Jimmy Burns, a fictional reporter who is placed in the battle fronts to bring the truth to Americans by a news network called Global. An attempt to hide the truth is apparent in the scene where Crash nearly threatens to shoot Burns after an ambush, but quickly changes into an “American Hero” as soon as the cameras began rolling. Another apparent example of the ways in which the government is attempting to hide the truth is the anger mustered up over raw footage of what was actually happening in Iraq, for example, the missile attacks. Through this argument, Lappe and Goldman reveal how the situation overseas progressively gets worse by the attempts to conceal the truth. The graphic novel also plays off the claims that America is only in the Middle East or the oil by stating President McCain’s refusal to leave the war. The authors also attempt to display the way that America seems to always force its ways onto other countries and how the American government lacks the necessary skills to interact successfully with other countries.

John Malinowski said

at 6:45 am on Oct 4, 2011

This graphic, but very interesting novel, uses Jimmy Burns, the fictional reporter, to show that the American government is a corrupted government. They use all of his experiences in Iraq, including when he gets captured to prove this. When Jimmy Burns is captured in Shooting Wars, one the most wanted men, Adallah, tells the American people that our government is corrupt and is killing people that dont need to be killed, hiding information, and telling us that our media doesnt ever let the truth out. The media will always tell us what they think will keep us watching their network as opposed to the next. Shooting Wars is just a rhetorical, quite mesmerizing attempt to get us this information.

mike said

at 8:08 am on Oct 4, 2011

In “Shooting War”, author Anthony Lappe and artist Dan Goldman illustrate many controversial points about the war in the Middle East and the corruption that has lead us there. ”Shooting War” portrays the life of a young ‘hipster-vlogger’ who was thrust into fame by ‘being at the right place, at the right time’. Through the use of an extreme news agency, Global News, the exploitive ways of news agencies are exposed. Global News does just as all American news agencies do: show what will sell. They know people want to know how the situation is so they keep up the hype. More viewers mean more advertising dollars. Moreover, the comic’s main point is that our government is corrupt in that we had no good reason to invade Iraq, especially when the perpetrator we were looking for was not even in Iraq.
The treatment of other countries by the American war effort is also addressed when it is realized that the entire Middle East has become a war-ridden dead zone devoid of anything except hostile assailants. When the US militant says “There are no civilians”, it sounds quite sinister and almost heroic in this context, but has no truth behind it. In the comic, it is used to justify the unwarranted slaughter of innocent civilians. There have been more civilian deaths in the Middle East over the last 10 years than that of the September 11 attacks and military death counts combined.

Yashvir Riar said

at 10:30 am on Oct 4, 2011

The web-comic “Shooting War” employs a high level of satire to point out the flaws of modern media in America. Jimmy Burns, a fictional left-winged blogger, is taken in by Global Network after having witnessed and streamed a bombing in a Starbucks. The network takes Burns’ live feed and displays it on their news channel for the entire public. Jimmy Burns is then employed by Global Network and shipped off a field journalist in the War on Terror. Jimmy is taken along with troops to various locations and one such occasion, the helicopter in which he was travelling was shot down.
The rest of his crew was killed by a group calling themselves “Sword of Mohammed”. Burns was left alive to send out a live stream of their leader, Abu Abdallah, goes on to mention that the US had turned Muslims against one another and wreaked havoc in Iraq. He then beheads a “Muslim who betrayed his prophet” to show to all of the United States. Another news network, Fox, is then shown to defame the Global Network calling this footage snuff video and referring to Burns as a Commie Blogger.
Jimmy is later on a mission with a Special Forces team to a region referred to as Mogadishu. Here, the team is ambushed by extremists and the US soldiers are shown to allow innocent civilians to die. They also lose one of their members, but when asked on camera about the mission, Colonel Crowley refers to it as a success because they killed the bad guys. Burns asks whether such a result is worth it after looking at all the collateral damage to civilians and one of his teammates, but Crowley responds with “There are no civilians in Baghdad”. Overall, the entirety of the web-comic highlights the selectivity of American media to promote a sense of patriotism whilst hiding the full facts of every story.

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