//Skip to content
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

The Fake Enemy Behind the Iran Deal

May 9, 2018
Source: Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In 1991, throughout the turmoil of the Gulf War, French philosopher Jaun Baudrillard published a collection of essays in the Guardian and Libération under the title ‘The Gulf War Did Not Take Place’. He did not imply that the war did not actually take place, but that everything that was said about it was an illusion. The events leading up to the war looked like a perfectly manufactured scene from Hollywood – they were not real, but a promotion. All information on the war was promoted to point to one direction, which in effect made everything look dubious. Saddam Hussein, in fact, was a fake enemy. At one point, he is perfectly pampered and strengthened by the West during the Iran-Iraq war, receiving generous amounts of economic and military aid, and at another point, he is subjugated and suppressed. It was not the West v.s. Iraq, but the West in conflict with itself, as Jaun Baudrillard points out. Western hegemony is in crisis, and so the only way to sustain it is to perpetually create an irrational, mad and fabricated enemy that is ‘overtaken’ by the great powers. At the end of…


Hi guest,

You've read all of your free articles.
Subscribe now to support independent journalism and to enjoy:


Unlimited access to all our articles

Exclusive events and offers

First access to new premium newsletters

Ability to comment on articles

Full user profile