Pentagon: No Pictures of War Unless They're Approved
Hegseth’s new directive, as detailed by The Hill, aims to centralize Pentagon press operations, requiring prior approval for interviews and restricting access to commanders and troops. This isn't about 'security'; it's about shaping perception. This exact playbook was run during the Iraq War, where 'embedded' journalists provided sanitized images, ensuring the American public saw a 'war of
liberation'—not the chaos and destruction of Fallujah. It's the same strategy used by any regime that prefers controlled leakage to inconvenient truth. One might wonder if this new policy is designed to prevent inconvenient images from reaching the public (like, say, a cluster bomb made in America hitting a market, or US-supplied armored vehicles being used in war crimes). When the Pentagon
controls the lens, every 'humanitarian crisis' abroad looks a lot more... palatable. How many times will we pretend the military-industrial complex isn't also a propaganda machine?