--- title: Iraq War propaganda from 1980 to 2003 url: https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/ description: 'Propaganda in the Iraq wars: Saddam-era posters and radio, Gulf War leaflets, and the 2003 US case for war, tagged by technique, same tests for every side.' section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg) Collection # Iraq War propaganda from 1980 to 2003 Propaganda in the Iraq wars: Saddam-era posters and radio, Gulf War leaflets, and the 2003 US case for war, tagged by technique, same tests for every side. 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. Iraq War propaganda [![Ayyuha al-jaysh al-'iraqi al-sharif (O honourable Iraqi army): Iranian Army leaflet on Saddam's 'film'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iran-army-leaflet-saddam-pow-film-iraqi-army-1980.png)Ayyuha al-jaysh al-'iraqi al-sharif (O honourable Iraqi army): Iranian Army leaflet on Saddam's 'film'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-army-leaflet-saddam-pow-film-iraqi-army-1980/) [![Ya abna' al-jaysh al-'iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981.png)Ya abna' al-jaysh al-'iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981/) [![Desert Storm surrender leaflets (CIA museum display)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cia-desert-storm-surrender-leaflets-1991-640.jpg)Desert Storm surrender leaflets (CIA museum display)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cia-desert-storm-surrender-leaflets-1991/) [![Baghdad communique and RCC-Ba'th statement, 17 January 1991 (FBIS translation)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/baghdad-communique-3-fbis-1991-640.jpg)Baghdad communique and RCC-Ba'th statement, 17 January 1991 (FBIS translation)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/baghdad-communique-3-fbis-1991/) [![Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002.svg)Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002/) [![Bringing Our Service Members Home: Reducing Troop Levels in Afghanistan and Iraq](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014-640.jpg)Bringing Our Service Members Home: Reducing Troop Levels in Afghanistan and Iraq](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014/) > **Content note.** Some material on this page is war propaganda from every side: religious denunciations of enemy leaders, a skull-faced portrait of Saddam Hussein and a leader cult. All of it appears as issued, as evidence of what each government told its audiences. Showing an item is not endorsing it. [What was propaganda in the Iraq wars?](https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/#what-was-propaganda-in-the-iraq-wars) [What did propaganda look like in the Iran-Iraq War, 1980 to 1988?](https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/#what-did-propaganda-look-like-in-the-iran-iraq-war-1980-to-1) [How did Iraq and the coalition use propaganda in the Gulf War, 1990 to 1991?](https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/#how-did-iraq-and-the-coalition-use-propaganda-in-the-gulf-wa) [How did the US and UK present the case for the 2003 invasion?](https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/#how-did-the-us-and-uk-present-the-case-for-the-2003-invasion) [Which techniques recur in the Iraq wars?](https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/#which-techniques-recur-in-the-iraq-wars) [What to look for in Iraq War propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/iraq-war-propaganda/#what-to-look-for-in-iraq-war-propaganda) ## What was propaganda in the Iraq wars? Propaganda in the Iraq wars was organised persuasion by every government involved: Iraq's state media and leader cult, Iranian and coalition leaflets, and the US and UK case for war in 2002 to 2003. The collection holds 18 objects from 1980 to 2014, each tagged by issuer, audience and technique. Explain moreShow less "Iraq wars" here means three conflicts that overlap in the record: the Iran-Iraq War (1980 to 1988), the Gulf War (1990 to 1991) and the Iraq War that began in March 2003. The page applies the working definition used for every country ([how FRAME defines propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/working-definition/)) and the same technique definitions to every side. For the Iraqi state itself, see the regime page [Ba'athist Iraq](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/ba-athist-iraq/). For the Washington government that went to war in 2003, see [George W. Bush administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/george-w-bush-administration/). Related landings: [psychological operations](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/psychological-operations/), [propaganda leaflets](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-leaflets/) and [disinformation](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/disinformation/). The sections run in date order. Each object is described from its catalogue entry: issuer, audience, the ask and the technique. ## What did propaganda look like in the Iran-Iraq War, 1980 to 1988? Both governments aimed leaflets at the other side's soldiers and built war appeals for their own people. The entries carry only a range of dates for most of these items, so the order below follows the entries' year field. **Content note:** Wartime leaflet pairing a devotional portrait of Imam Ali with a warning that divine wrath will pursue attacking troops. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Iraqi armed forces notice to Iranians with Imam Ali](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iraq-notice-to-iranians-imam-ali-1980.jpg) ![War, war, until victory: Iranian war-affairs poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/jang-jang-ta-pirouzi-war-affairs-hq-poster-1980s.jpg) ![Jomhouri-e Eslami, 24 September 1982: Workers, toilers! Islam is your supporter](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kargaran-zahmatkeshan-eslam-hami-shomast-1982.jpg) ![Al-Iraq newspaper, 7 January 1989, new-year illustration of Saddam Hussein](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iraq-al-iraq-new-year-1989-saddam-illustration.jpg) Explain moreShow less A Persian-language leaflet signed "Iraqi armed forces" presents Iraq as keeper of the Imams' shrines, warns that God's wrath will follow any attacker and tells the reader to surrender in order to survive. The entry tags it fear appeal and transfer; Commons dates it only to 1980 to 1988. [Read the technique: fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/). An Art Committee of Iran's War Affairs Headquarters issued this painted poster. Three fighters in headbands lettered "Ya Mahdi" stand under the slogan "War, war, until victory". The entry notes that "victory" has no stated aim, and that the headbands and national colours lend religious and national prestige to the call. It is tagged glittering generalities and transfer. [Read the technique: glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/). The special issue of 24 September 1982 marked the second anniversary of what the paper calls the "imposed war". Its supplement poster puts "Islam" as the subject of a promise of support, with a worker carrying a flag lettered with an invocation of God. The entry tags it glittering generalities and transfer. [Read the technique: transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/). Five months after the ceasefire of 20 August 1988, the Baghdad daily al-Iraq ran a pen drawing of Saddam Hussein above a soldier with a banner marked 1989, ringed by a palm, rebuilt apartment blocks, a laurel branch, a dove and a helmet. The entry tags the stack of victory, peace and reconstruction symbols around the leader's portrait as transfer. The collection also holds two Iranian leaflets for Iraqi soldiers, one answering an Iraqi prisoner-of-war film and one urging the army to remove Saddam as the Egyptian army had removed Sadat. Both are tagged name-calling and appear in the grid below. ## How did Iraq and the coalition use propaganda in the Gulf War, 1990 to 1991? The Gulf War is the best documented of the three conflicts in the record, because the US Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) translated Iraqi radio and the coalition published its leaflets. ![Hero of Victory and Peace, Saddam Hussein roadside mural, bullet-damaged](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/saddam-hero-of-victory-and-peace-mural-1991.jpg) ![FBIS Daily Report: Baghdad Domestic Service reads Saddam Husayn's letter to Bush](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/fbis-baghdad-saddam-letter-to-bush-1991.jpg) ![Baghdad communique and RCC-Ba'th statement, 17 January 1991](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/baghdad-communique-3-fbis-1991.jpg) ![Desert Storm surrender leaflets, CIA display](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cia-desert-storm-surrender-leaflets-1991.jpg) ![Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure Ruler of the dead](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-war-leaflet-ruler-of-the-dead-skull-1991.jpg) Explain moreShow less Bastiaan Everink photographed this painted panel in Iraq in 1991. The banner reads "Hero of Victory and Peace" and the entry tags the epithet glittering generalities and cult of personality: two approved abstractions attached to the leader with no act behind them. The panel is pocked with bullet impacts, shown as found. On 17 January 1991, the first day of the air war, Baghdad radio read a letter from Saddam Hussein to President George H. W. Bush that called him "enemy of God and colleague of the devil" and cited Koranic verses. The entry tags name-calling, transfer and demagoguery. [Read the technique: name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/). The same FBIS report translates Communique No. 3 and a statement of the Revolution Command Council and Ba'th Party Regional Command, which call the coalition "infidels, idolators, and hypocrites" and frame the war as "Muhammadan jihad". The entry tags name-calling and transfer. The CIA posted this photograph in 2011 and says the leaflets were dropped before a bombing run so that civilians could leave and military units could surrender. Cartoon panels show a bombed airfield and a bomb marked "Warning", next to a scene of soldiers eating together. The entry tags it fear appeal. Commons records this leaflet as a US government item "equating Saddam with death". The figure is drawn as a skull above the Arabic line "Ruler of the dead!". The leaflet prints no issuer, so the attribution rests on that record. The entry tags name-calling and notes that the leaflet gives no act that could be checked. The Gulf War also had a Kuwaiti side. The case study [The Nayirah testimony](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/nayirah-testimony-1990/) covers a 1990 appearance before a House caucus that Citizens for a Free Kuwait and the US firm Hill & Knowlton arranged. [The 1990-91 Gulf crisis](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/gulf-crisis-1990/) sets Iraq's "guests" and "linkage" language beside Washington's Hitler analogy. ## How did the US and UK present the case for the 2003 invasion? The 2003 war is documented in the collection from the coalition side, because Iraq's government left few items from that spring. The full record of the case is the case study [How the US and UK governments presented the case for war in Iraq, 2002-03](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/iraq-wmd-case-2002-03/). ![Mobile Production Facilities for Biological Agents, UN Security Council slide](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/powell-un-mobile-labs-2003.jpg) **Content note:** Wartime leaflet showing gas-masked soldiers, an explosion and a biohazard sign, with a threat of retribution. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Coalition leaflet warning Iraqi units not to use weapons of mass destruction](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iraq-leaflet-do-not-use-wmd-2003.jpg) ![Mission Accomplished banner on USS Abraham Lincoln](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/mission-accomplished-banner-2003.jpg) ![Bringing Our Service Members Home: troop-level infographic, 2014](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014.jpg) Explain moreShow less Secretary of State Colin Powell showed this computer-rendered diagram to the UN Security Council on 5 February 2003, six weeks before the invasion. The claim rested mainly on one Iraqi source codenamed Curveball. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (July 2004) and the Robb-Silberman Commission (March 2005) both found the mobile-lab assessment relied largely on him, and no such labs were found. The entry tags it card stacking and places the failure in the intelligence process, not in a finding that Powell knew the claim was false. The US Navy released this leaflet on 24 February 2003; coalition aircraft dropped it before the invasion. It warns Iraqi units of "swift and severe retribution" if they use weapons of mass destruction and says unit commanders will be held accountable. The entry tags it fear appeal and records that the Iraq Survey Group's final report (the Duelfer Report, 30 September 2004) found no stockpiles in 2003. On 1 May 2003 President George W. Bush landed on the carrier and announced the end of major combat operations. The White House said its staff produced the banner at the Navy's request, and in 2008 Bush said it had sent the wrong message. The entry tags it transfer and records that US combat operations continued until 2010 and US forces stayed until 2011. The Obama White House published this infographic on 27 May 2014. A falling line plots US troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq from about 180,000 in January 2009 to zero at the end of 2016. The entry tags it card stacking: the line after mid-2014 is a plan, not a count, and the president authorised airstrikes in Iraq on 7 August 2014. ## Which techniques recur in the Iraq wars? The same technique definitions apply to every issuer. These recur across the items: Explain moreShow less - **Name-calling.** Epithets replace argument: "enemy of God", "Ruler of the dead", "the criminal agent", "infidels". [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/). - **Transfer.** Religious texts, shrines and national colours lend authority: Imam Ali on a 1980 leaflet, Koranic verses in 1991, a carrier deck in 2003. [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/). - **Fear appeal.** Leaflets on both sides pair a picture of harm with a stated consequence for surrender or non-surrender. [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/). - **Glittering generalities and cult of personality.** "Victory", "Islam" and "Hero of Victory and Peace" are virtue words with no testable claim attached. [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/); [cult of personality](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/cult-of-personality/). - **Card stacking.** True or plausible material is selected and ordered to force one reading: the 2003 slide left out the doubts about its source, and the 2014 chart plotted a plan as if it were a count. [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/). Scale, intent and context differ. The Iraqi items come from a one-party state whose information ministry controlled print and broadcast, and the Iranian items from a state at war with it. The coalition items come from democracies whose legislatures, courts, inspectors and press later reviewed the claims, and those reviews are part of the record cited in the entries. The page does not treat these as equivalent systems. It shows what each issuer told its audience. ## What to look for in Iraq War propaganda - **Who is speaking.** A ministry, an army, a newspaper, a PR firm or an anonymous leaflet. Some leaflets print no issuer, and the entries say so. - **The date against the event.** A statement on the first day of an air campaign or six weeks before an invasion shows what was claimed then, not what was later established. - **What is left out.** The 2003 slide omits the doubts about its source. Show all 5Show fewer - **Borrowed authority.** Shrines, imams, verses, a carrier deck, a flight suit. - **Where the claim can be checked.** The Duelfer Report, the Senate committee and Robb-Silberman findings are cited in the entries. Explain moreShow less See also [Afghanistan war propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/afghanistan-war-propaganda/), [propaganda leaflets](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-leaflets/), [propaganda examples](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-examples/) and [types of propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/). ## Browse Iraq War propaganda The grid below shows objects from the collection tagged to Iraq, the Gulf War and the Iran-Iraq War. Each opens an object page with the holding institution, a link to the original record, a transcription of any text and the rights basis for hosting. Sources and further reading ## Sources and rights Objects on this page come from the U.S. Objects on this page come from the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, the White House, the Internet Archive's copies of U.S. FBIS reports and Wikimedia Commons. Each object page gives its own rights basis. Transcriptions are verbatim. Counts were made from the entry files in `examples/entries/`. ## Iraq wars propaganda in the collection Showing 18 of 18 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/). - [Ayyuha al-jaysh al-'iraqi al-sharif (O honourable Iraqi army): Iranian Army leaflet on Saddam's 'film'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-army-leaflet-saddam-pow-film-iraqi-army-1980/) (Iran · 1980 · Name-calling, Euphemism / doublespeak). Content note: Wartime leaflet that calls Saddam Hussein a criminal, agent and charlatan, in Arabic. - [Payam: Ay Iraniyan (Message: O Iranians): Iraqi armed forces notice with image of Imam Ali](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-notice-to-iranians-imam-ali-1980/) (Iraq · 1980 · Fear appeal, Transfer) - ["War, war, until victory": Iranian war-affairs poster, 1980s](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jang-jang-ta-pirouzi-war-affairs-hq-poster-1980s/) (Iran · 1980 · Glittering generalities, Transfer) - [Ya abna' al-jaysh al-'iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981/) (Iran · 1981 · Name-calling, Transfer) - ["Workers, toilers! Islam is your supporter": Jomhouri-e Eslami special issue, 1982](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kargaran-zahmatkeshan-eslam-hami-shomast-1982/) (Iran · Sep 24, 1982 · Glittering generalities, Transfer) - [Al-Iraq newspaper, 7 January 1989: new-year illustration of Saddam Hussein with '1989' banner](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-al-iraq-new-year-1989-saddam-illustration/) (Iraq · Jan 7, 1989 · Transfer). Content note: Leader-glorifying newspaper illustration from Ba'athist Iraq. - [Desert Storm surrender leaflets (CIA museum display)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cia-desert-storm-surrender-leaflets-1991/) (United States · 1991 · Fear appeal) - [Gulf War leaflet, portrait with mourning band 'The cold face of death and war'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-cold-face-of-death-1991/) (United States · 1991 · Name-calling). Content note: Portrait of a political leader framed as a death notice, with Arabic text. - [Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure 'Ruler of the dead'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-ruler-of-the-dead-skull-1991/) (United States · 1991 · Name-calling). Content note: Caricature of a political leader drawn as a skull-faced figure, with Arabic text. - [بطل النصر والسلام (Hero of Victory and Peace), Saddam Hussein roadside mural, bullet-damaged](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/saddam-hero-of-victory-and-peace-mural-1991/) (Iraq · 1991 · Glittering generalities, Cult of personality). Content note: Bullet-damaged state mural of Saddam Hussein; a uniformed soldier stands beside it. No graphic content. - [Baghdad communique and RCC-Ba'th statement, 17 January 1991 (FBIS translation)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/baghdad-communique-3-fbis-1991/) (Iraq · Jan 17, 1991 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Wartime state text using religious epithets ('infidels, idolators, hypocrites', 'U.S. despot and apostate') and the phrase 'U.S.-Zionist aggression' about the coalition. - [FBIS Daily Report: Baghdad Domestic Service reads Saddam Husayn's letter to Bush (17 Jan 1991)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/fbis-baghdad-saddam-letter-to-bush-1991/) (Iraq · Jan 17, 1991 · Name-calling, Transfer, Demagoguery, Demonization). Content note: Wartime letter from Saddam Husayn calling President Bush 'enemy of God and colleague of the devil', 'atheist, unbeliever, sinful aggressor', and the Gulf rulers 'treacherous'. - [Fida'iyyu Saddam tali'a (Saddam's Fedayeen are the vanguard): Fedayeen Saddam poster with Dome of the Rock](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-fedayeen-saddam-poster-mujahidi-al-umma-1995/) (Iraq · 1995 · Transfer). Content note: Glorifying poster of Saddam Hussein firing a rifle, with masked armed paramilitaries and the Dome of the Rock. - [Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002/) (United States · 2002 · Fear appeal, Card stacking) - [Mobile Production Facilities for Biological Agents (UN Security Council slide)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/powell-un-mobile-labs-2003/) (United States · Feb 5, 2003 · Card stacking, Atrocity propaganda) - [Coalition leaflet warning Iraqi units not to use weapons of mass destruction](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-leaflet-do-not-use-wmd-2003/) (United States · Feb 24, 2003 · Fear appeal). Content note: Wartime leaflet showing gas-masked soldiers, an explosion and a biohazard sign, with a threat of retribution. - ['Mission Accomplished' banner on USS Abraham Lincoln](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mission-accomplished-banner-2003/) (United States · May 2, 2003 · Transfer) - [Bringing Our Service Members Home: Reducing Troop Levels in Afghanistan and Iraq](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014/) (United States · May 27, 2014 · Card stacking) ## Related guides and pages - [The Pentagon's retired military analyst outreach programme (2002-2008)](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/pentagon-military-analysts/) - [All guides](https://propagandaarchive.org/guides/)