U.S. Military Recruits Sesame Street

Elmo Pimps War: Military Recruits Sesame Street
By Chris Cook
May. 22, 2008

The BBC World News reports the iconic children's program, Sesame Street is broadcasting episodes to help kids cope with the long absence of their service personnel parents "manning" the walls of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Mommy and Daddy are going away to help some folks overseas"sings Elmo, trying to explain to the kinder of the United States their parents' absence.

It's not the first time the venerable characters have been used to forward America's military ambitions; back in 2003, frustrated U.S. interrogators used the theme music from Sesame Street and Barney, the famous purple dinosaur, played at ear-splitting volumes to "break" recalcitrant Iraqi "detainees," among other methods made infamous later.

"I wish your legs were O.K., Poppy," mewls another Muppet, carefully avoiding the "W" word. As the BBC report reminds, "This is still a soft and fuzzy world, where the realities of the war are not mentioned."

The relationship between Sesame Street and the military though goes deeper than the deployment of its sickly-sweet theme in the torture chambers of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram Air Base; the BBC reveals the U.S. Army is a sponsor of The Children's Television Workshop, Sesame Street's producers.

Public Relations heavyweight and former Bush administration Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy during the run-up to war with Iraq,Charlotte Beers is a big fan of the motley hand-puppets created by the late Jim Henson. Beers sings the praise of the signed up Sesame Street, unleashed to teach the glories of American democracy to middle-easterners, saying;

"[P]eople we need to talk to do not even know the basics about us. They are taught to distrust our every motive. Such distortions, married to a lack of knowledge, is a deadly cocktail. Engaging, teaching common values are preventive medicine."

Part of that prescription required an investment by the Agency for International Development (USAID) of 6.26million dollars to create in Bangladesh a program similar to the one launched in Egypt in 2000. Beers thinks it money well spent, saying;

"The children are glued to the set. They are learning English, they are learning about American values."

Meanwhile,the producers at The Children's Television Workshop bristle at the suggestion they are essentially pushing American values to children in foreign countries and cultures, one of their foreign-content producers telling the BBC;

"We don't set out in any way to push American or western values. That's not our mission at all. There are universal values that we encourage, such as sharing, co-operation, respect and understanding. But we see what the needs are of the specific country where the show is being broadcast - such as in South Africa where we introduced an HIV-positive character because of the Aids problem there."

In recent years, Sesame Street has become an international phenomenon, with "local" versions of the programing appearing in countries as diverse as the former Soviet and Yugoslav republics, to Jordan, Israel, and other middle-eastern nations.

The recent military-directed programming follows a bilingual DVD especially produced for the same purpose in 2006.