The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, a book by Jean Baudrillard, is a collection of three short essays published in the French newspaper Libération and British paper The Guardian between January and March 1991.

• Part 1, "The Gulf War will not take place" was published in Liberation on January 4, 1991.
• Part 2, "The Gulf War is not really taking place" was published in Liberation on February 6, 1991 and
• Part 3, "The Gulf War did not take place" was published in Liberation on March 29, 1991.

Contrary to the title, the author believes that the events and violence of the Gulf War actually took place, whereas the issue is one of interpretation: were the events that took place comparable to how they were presented, and could these events be called a war? The title is a reference to the play The Trojan war will not take place by Jean Giraudoux (in which characters attempt to prevent what the audience knows is inevitable).

The essays in Libération and the Guardian were published before, during and after the Gulf War and they were titled accordingly: During the American military and rhetorical buildup as "The Gulf War Will not take Place"; during military action as "The Gulf War is not Taking Place", and after action was over, "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place". A book elongated versions of the truncated original articles in French was published in May 1991. The English translation was published in early 1995 translated by Paul Patton.`

Summary

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Baudrillard argues that the style of warfare used in the Gulf War was so far removed from previous standards of warfare that it existed more as images on RADAR and TV screens than as actual hand-to-hand combat, that most of the decisions in the war were based on perceived intelligence coming from maps, images, and news, than from actual seen-with-the-eye intelligence.

Baudrillard argues that the startlingly one-sided nature of the conflict (fewer US soldiers were killed in this 'war' than would have died in traffic accidents had they stayed at home) means that it should not be seen as a war, simply because the US-led coalition chose not to engage with the Iraqi army or to take the kind of risks that constitute war (Baudrillard 1995, 69).

The US-led coalition was fighting a virtual war while the Iraqis tried to fight a traditional one - the two could not entirely meet (Baudrillard 1995, 69). A great deal of violence took place, but the "Gulf War" per se did not; rather than belittling the effects of this violence, this means that the Gulf War should be seen not as a war but as "an atrocity masquerading as war" (Merrin 1994, 447).

References

• Baudrillard, Jean (1991) La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu, Paris: Galilée.
• Baudrillard, Jean (1995) The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, Bloomington: Indiana University Press