Turner’s Iraq: The New American Frontier

Abstract

This paper examines how the Iraq War was portrayed by the United States Government, American News Media and Hollywood films as a new American Frontier. Through an analysis of The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner, a historical and popular concept of the American Frontier is established. By using this to explore the rhetoric used in addresses by the Bush Administration, popular news media and the films American Sniper, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty it is found that the Iraq War was marketed to the American public as a frontier that required intervention.