The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, a book by Jean Baudrillard, is a translation of three essays published in Libération between January and March 1991. Contrary to the provocative title, the author does believe that the events and violence of the Gulf War actually took place. 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). Baudrillard argues that the style of warfare used in the Gulf War was so far removed from previous standards of war 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 2001, 29-30). Most provocatively, Baudrillard argues that the startlingly one-sided nature of the conflict (fewer US soldiers were killed in this 'war' than would have...