Contemporary Soldier Stories and the Game of Propaganda: The War on Terror, and some Folkloric Reflections on the War in Iraq

Abstract

This paper explores the world of confusion of identity, purpose and hurt associated with the various ‘western’ forces involved in this Allied campaign against ‘Terror’, with special reference to the war in Iraq. The treatment is associated with propaganda, song, trauma, Australian perceptions of, and attitudes to, all of this conflict. Song, WikiLeaks, etc. are explored, and the whole is linked to the earlier Australian culture of the folk-rock track, ’I was Only Nineteen’.