Sad shires and no man’s land: First World War frames of reference in the British media representation of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

The focus of this article is the manner in which media representations in Britain of the 21st century conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan drew upon the terms, allusions and imagery of the First World War. The application of these visual and textual frames of reference has been used to demonstrate the failings of government, the need for national support or the validation of anti-war perspectives. Through the use of a critical discourse analysis, this assessment will highlight how the war of 1914–1918 is used within contemporary Britain as a vehicle for political and social commentary upon the actions of authority. Despite being fought at the outset of the last century, the newspaper coverage of the British Army’s operation in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates how the First World War still goes on within sections of British society.


Introduction
As the 100th anniversaries of the First World War are marked, the meaning and value of a conflict fought at the outset of the 20th century has become an object of debate in former combatant countries. Within Britain, this discussion is taking place within the context of the denouement of two other protracted wars fought at the outset of the 21st century. The conflicts in Afghanistan from 2001 and Iraq from 2003 were highly divisive issues within British society and raised considerable dissent and debate within the media (Lewis et al., 2006). Indeed, the reporting of these wars marked a new wave of scholarly studies of how the 'War on Terror' was framed within newspapers, online sources and television (Hoskins and O'Loughlin, 2010). However, what was noticeable in the British newspaper coverage of both theatres of operation was that it was frequently couched in the terms associated with the First World War. Within these accounts, contemporary British soldiers were placed in the figurative landscape of the Western Front as they conducted operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This association between the past and the present can be regarded as more than just the standard employment of journalistic clichés; rather, it evidences the manner in which the war is remembered in Britain as an active engagement with the events of 1914-1918 (see Wilson, 2013). This stands in contrast to recent interpretations of the 'popular memory' of the First World War in Britain that regards it as a product of vapid consumption of media representation. Through a critical assessment of the discourses present within the newspaper reporting of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the ideas and values associated with the First World War can be examined. This can be used to reveal wider issues of how the past is brought to bear on the present through language, allusion and imagery as a means of challenging or supporting the operation of power and authority (Fairclough, 2001).

The First World War in memory and history
The First World War still possesses a significant, emotive power in some former combatant countries, despite the passing of time and the death of the last veterans. In Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, to mention the Somme, Ypres, Gallipoli or Vimy is to almost automatically evoke images of blasted war landscapes, atrocious trenches and dugouts all inhabited by piteous soldiers suffering the maelstrom of industrialised war at the behest of an indifferent or incompetent military and political elite (Fussell, 1975;Thomson, 1994;Vance, 1998;Winter, 2006). In Britain, these sentiments have been reiterated within popular culture, as film, television programmes and literature have all sought to represent the 'rats, gas, mud and blood' image of the war (Todman, 2005). Such perceptions have been frequently critiqued by historians over the last two decades as they seek to revise the 'popular memory' of the conflict (Bond, 2002). In their assessment, the war of 1914-1918 was a 'forgotten victory', a moment when society was mobilised for the war effort, the economy was transformed and the army was triumphant in the field (Sheffield, 2002). To understand why within Britain the image of suffering and trauma should hold sway over the wider public consciousness, rather than the concept of noble sacrifice, revisionist historians have sought to assert that the 'popular memory' of the war is a product of media consumption (Hanna, 2009).
In this interpretation, the war poetry and memoirs of such literary figures as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen or Robert Graves are regarded as providing a skewed perspective on the First World War (Bond, 2002). Their foundational work, which focuses on suffering, futility and disillusion, are considered to be a product of a psychologicallythwarted, well-educated, middle-class background which was not representative of the wider sentiment within the British Army (Badsey, 2001). Scholars have examined how this disenchanted literature attracted a great deal of sympathy in the turbulent interwar period. The accessibility and popularity of these representations saw it cement a place as 'the war' within British society during the 1930s, regardless of the limitations of the authors and their work (Corrigan, 2003). Indeed, despite this restricted interpretation, the sentiments of the war poets have come to dominate popular depictions of the war since their publication through a variety of cultural forms. From the 1963 dramatic production of Oh! What a Lovely War (dir. Attenborough, 1969) to the television programme Blackadder Goes Forth (dir. Boden, 1989) and the novel Birdsong (Faulks, 1992), the same motifs of absurdity and brutality can be distinguished (Braun, 1996;Korte, 2001). The similarity in these representations has led to the assessment that the war is entirely remembered within Britain through this media, thereby dislocating the 'history' from the 'memory' of the conflict.
In Britain, with the preparations for the anniversaries of the outbreak, battles and the denouement of the war, this disparity between the popular memory and academic history of the conflict has become politicised with accusations of bias and ulterior agendas in how the hundredth anniversaries of the conflict should be marked. The issues at stake were highlighted by the comments in support of the revisionist perspective of the war made by the Conservative MP Michael Gove, then Secretary of State for Education, in January 2014: The war was, of course, an unspeakable tragedy, which robbed this nation of our bravest and best. But even as we recall that loss and commemorate the bravery of those who fought, it's important that we don't succumb to some of the myths which have grown up about the conflict. Our understanding of the war has been overlaid by misunderstandings, and misrepresentations which reflect an, at best, ambiguous attitude to this country and, at worst, an unhappy compulsion on the part of some to denigrate virtues such as patriotism, honour and courage. (Gove, 2014) This assessment of the representation of the war as 'myths' perpetuated by the media was immediately countered by critics who stated in turn that such interpretations of the conflict as an exemplum of nobility and loyalty in British society were similarly coloured by political connotations (Hunt, 2014). Such debates emphasise that despite being fought at the outset of the last century, the war still evidently possesses significance within British society. However, as the memory of the conflict becomes a battleground itself, with rival groups seeking dominance in their interpretations, the assessment of the war's legacy within British society can be somewhat eclipsed. The debates surrounding the revision of the conflict as a victory or as a tragedy serves to neglect how the war actually functions within contemporary British life (after Samuel, 1994). The effect and affect of referencing and remembering the conflict evidences how the First World War possesses a social and political utility (Wilson, 2013). Such conceptions of place and meaning are not developed by the simplistic assessments of memory emphasised in the revisionist debates.

Frames of reference, memory and meaning
Rather than assume society vapidly consumes media representations but actively selects particular, favoured visions over others, a nuanced examination of the 'value' of the First World War within contemporary Britain can be conducted. If media, whether film, television programmes, literature or newspapers are regarded not as a directive but as a means of expression for society then the way in which war 'still goes on' can be assessed (see Wertsch, 2002). This can be demonstrated in how the conflict of 1914-1918 is evoked not directly in the print media but as a means to understand current socio-cultural and political issues (Williams, 2009). This usage of the conflict can be observed across modern British newspapers, where the war serves as a means to highlight concerns regarding authority, power and responsibility. In this fashion, referring to parties as in 'the trenches' regarding reform, or left in 'no man's land' by a negligent institution, using 'the Somme' as a byword for ill-fated or ill-planned ventures, or referencing the poetry of Sassoon and Owen to highlight pity or irresponsibility enables a critical engagement with current affairs (Wilson, 2013). These allusions and discussions of the First World War can be regarded as a socially-understood frame of reference as it requires a knowing and engaging readership (see Fish, 1980). This utility of the conflict as an orientating tool, not as a cliché, but a means of expressing public opinion, was most clearly demonstrated in the reporting of the Afghanistan War (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) and the Iraq War (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) in Britain.
The deployment of British troops in operations as part of the 'War on Terror' was a highly contested subject within political and social life across the nation (Kampfner, 2003;Lee, 2012). In response to Britain's role in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, these debates were conducted through a wide variety of media which were mobilised both in support and against such actions (Hoskins and O'Loughlin, 2010). However, what marked these debates, which covered the initial announcements of war, the nature of the wars' objectives, the tactical and logistical pursuance of victory and the end of both conflicts, was the manner in which the First World War was evoked as a means to support, counter and critique. Such references appeared as direct visual or textual analogies, comparative pieces, allusions to the war's cultural legacy or the employment of terms associated with the events of 1914-1918. This 'war of representation' was conducted in the tabloids and broadsheets from 2001 to 2014 as newspapers assessed the policies of the British Government, the operation of the British Army and the wider Multi-National Forces (Tumber and Palmer, 2004). This usage of the First World War appears to counter the revisionist argument that the conflict's popular perception as 'mud, blood, rats and gas' is derived from its media representation. In this example, the conflict was used as both a conservative and dissenting factor in the accounts of the development of the 'War on Terror'. Therefore, the appearance of such references indicates a far more complex use of the heritage of the First World War within British society. Politics, power, place and identity are all mobilised with the mention of the war of 1914-1918 and these sentiments were drawn upon to create frames of reference for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan (after Van Dijk, 1985, 1987. These frames of reference can be regarded as the product of social and political relations which indicate the values and ideals of society (Goffman, 1974). These relations can be identified through the application of a critical discourse analysis (CDA) that reveals the wider meanings of the First World War (after Fairclough, 1995Fairclough, , 2001. This approach recognises that the application of discourses is purposeful and possesses social and political effect. Therefore, the analysis of discourse, whether visual or textual, forms a means of identifying values and perceptions within a group, community or society. CDA is a significant method of analysing the discourses used in society to understand how this means of representation structures experience (Fairclough, 2001: 15). This approach is based upon the identification of the function and value of communication (p. 26). Each of these particular themes highlights the complex interaction that occurs between representation and consumption. With the agenda defined by CDA, the discourses used within any media do not represent a prescriptive demand upon society to view an issue in a particular manner but a means through which society defines itself.
To clarify the approach taken with CDA, Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271-278) highlighted a series of fundamental tenets to direct the application of the technique. These guidelines identified CDA as a tool to address social problems by defining power relations as discursive and constituting how society, politics and culture function. In this respect, discourse possesses an ideological value that can both assert norms but also resist the operation of authority. As discourse is mediated and interpreted by individuals, communities and governments, it constitutes a form of social action. In this approach, CDA examines discourse, whether textual or visual, as emerging within specific sociopolitical contexts that define a particular historical era. This is central to the study of this article as the employment of discourses regarding the First World War in the reporting of contemporary conflicts can reveal how the memory of the past is employed in the present (after Wertsch, 2002). Therefore, by examining how a community represents issues, the language used, the imagery that is drawn or the subtext that is present, an insight into how that community assesses the significance of an event or concern can be stated (after Miskimmon et al., 2013). At the centre of these debates is the operation of power within society through discourse; the ability to control and organise discourse evidences a high degree of authority but it also ensures that discourse itself becomes a means of resistance to that authority. Through the framing, position and identification within discourses that reference the past, the operation of power can be evidenced and challenged (after Fairclough, 2001: 26). Therefore, by identifying phrases, allusions, references and motifs relating to the First World War, CDA can be employed to expose the structures of control and resistance within society as the memory of the conflict of 1914-1918 is used to activate a variety of concerns.
Analysing the output from British newspapers from 2001 to 2014 that draws upon the conflict of 1914-1918 to report on the 'War on Terror' demonstrates how the media does not shape opinion on the First World War but serves as a mirror for observing how society uses the war to understand contemporary issues. Over 150 newspaper editorials, columns and reports in both tabloids and broadsheets were used to compile this analysis. This range of material is taken to ensure the widest possible social spectrum for the study. These pieces of evidence were obtained through database searches for keywords and phrases within the 20 most popular titles in Britain during the period 2001 to 2014 (National Readership Survey, 2014). The presence of First World War references in these newspapers does not indicate that such framing devices were frequent occurrences; rather it reveals the presence of this previous conflict as a common reference point within society (Wilson, 2013). Indeed, as media coverage in Britain of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been found to be largely favourable towards official government positions, the assessment of how the war of 1914-1918 is used as a means of mobilising both dissent or support across social and class divides offers a further means of analysing this newspaper content (after Robinson et al., 2010).
Within the context of the centenaries of the conflict during 2014 to 2018, the place of the war within contemporary British society will be placed under greater scrutiny (see Pennell, 2012). The manner and form of the remembrance activities will be assessed for their political neutrality or bias whilst the popular understanding of the war will be challenged and revised (see McCartney, 2014). However, the complexities of the heritage of the war for British society lie beyond such simplistic examinations. By an assessment of the ways in which the First World War is used to assess and frame current issues, the public perception of the conflict can be regarded as more than a vapid consumption of film and television. Through the media reporting of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, using the framework provided by such phrases as 'in the trenches', 'no man's land', 'over the top' or representing the war within the context of Owen's or Sassoon's poetry, the place and value of the events of 1914-1918 can be observed. Indeed, within these references, allusions and comparisons, the war 'still goes on' for contemporary British society. This is not the result of a nostalgic, sentimental vision of the war brought about by viewings of Oh! What a Lovely War (dir. Attenborough, 1969) or readings of Birdsong (Faulks, 1992). It is evoked because the conflict is used as a symbolic resource, to affirm or to challenge current issues. As such, both procedural and substantial newspaper accounts of the 'War on Terror' used the conflict of 1914-1918 to mobilise opinions throughout the course of 2001 to 2014. This demonstrates how the meaning of the First World War and other such uses of the past are interpreted and re-imagined rather than fixed in purpose and meaning.

In the trenches, a war of attrition and home by Christmas
In 2006, the cartoonist Steve Bell, publishing in The Guardian newspaper, highlighted the problems faced by the British government in policing and developing Afghanistan after the international coalition's invasion of the country in 2001 (Bell, 2006: 21). With the caption 'In Afghanistan it's not "going over the top", it's "reconstruction with extreme prejudice"', Bell sets the scene with the then Defence Secretary Dr John Reid standing in the trenches in the Afghan desert, whistle ready, whilst lines of soldiers line up by a ladder ready to move up ( Figure 1). Accompanied by such strong connotations to the war of 1914-1918, including the trench setting and the call to go 'over the top', the cartoon offers a means of placing the current conduct of the British Government in the critical context of the operations of the First World War. Issues of blame, responsibility and incompetence are thereby immediately attached to the operation of government. The use of the First World War in this fashion is significant; it demonstrates how the conflict serves as a critical device in the reporting of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This use of allusions to the First World War, to the 'trenches' or 'trench warfare' operates as a means to heighten emotional and political responses in order to censure military or civilian authorities for their policies in the 'War on Terror' (after Van Dijk, 1985: 69-70). In these accounts, newspaper reports evoked the imagery of the 1914-1918 war and specifically the battlefields of the Western Front in critical pieces that decried the tactics and the progress of operations. For example, The Scotsman reported in January 2007 on the incredulity of troops occupying trenches in Afghanistan; 'Almost 100 years after WWI, British troops have returned to the trenches' (Cumming, 2007). Similarly, Michael White (2010), writing in The Guardian newspaper in May 2010 evoked the 'bloodier existential conflict' on the Western Front to highlight the failings of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In this mode of representation, the First World War serves as a frame to situate an understanding of the war in Afghanistan. This use of explicit or implicit references to 'the trenches', to denote the conditions faced by troops in modern-day Afghanistan and Iraq, offers a means of critique. For example, the court case launched by veterans of the British Army for foot injuries sustained in tours of service was specifically linked in some media outlets to the wounds sustained in 'trench warfare' by British First World War soldiers. Such references were used to highlight issues of negligence and the irresponsibility of the British Government in failing to protect its troops at a time when the level of fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan were severe: About 150 troops, many from Commonwealth countries, are seeking compensation after sustaining the modern equivalent of trench foot. (Ingham, 2009) The Ministry of Defence said today it regretted any physical suffering caused by the condition -similar to the infamous First World War 'trench foot' -and would pay out where liable. (Bentham, 2009) The inclusion of 'the trenches' serves as an intensifier of emotions: a means to emphasise the absence of care towards the ordinary man in the field (after Fairclough, 2001: 7). The association with the perceived victimhood of the soldiers of the First World War is used by the popular press in the reporting of the modern conflicts as a mode of judgement (see Van Dijk, 1992: 90-91). The comparison frames the contemporary conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq within the context of the events of 1914 to 1918. Indeed, this association can be made directly in some cases, such as the following extract from The Observer newspaper, which published extracts from letters written by a front-line British soldier serving in Helmand Province in 2009: We got smashed the other day, mate, and got pinned down in a compound 150 metres from the base. We fired the Javelin to cover our withdrawal but had to wait 10 minutes for smoke again -fucking criminal. I can honestly say mate I was fucking terrified and now know what the blokes went through waiting for the whistle in the trenches in WW1.
Similarly, the Glasgow newspaper The Herald made the same unequivocal comparison with its reporting of the British soldiers' experiences in 2003: 'Iraq War Diary: It was more like a scene from the Somme … Rain and mud make life a misery on the front line with the Black Watch near Basra' (Bruce, 2003).
In November 2001, at the outset of the war in Afghanistan, a report in Scotland on Sunday featured an interview with Scotland's last veteran of the First World War, Alfred Anderson, whose experiences were used to warn of the folly of war: 'But as a nation remembers the millions of men slaughtered on the battlefields of France and Belgium, Anderson's thoughts are on the present-day conflict consuming lives on a different continent' (Young, 2001). In this manner, the First World War can be regarded as a spectre, haunting the representation of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars (after Derrida, 1993). However, this presence is far from an immaterial, ghostly apparition; rather, it serves as a corrective device, calling into account the actions of authority (after Fairclough, 1992). The usage of the expression 'war of attrition' is particularly significant in this regard. The phrase emerged during the First World War to describe the tactics employed by the Allied and Central Powers as each sought a means to break through the opposing lines of trenches. As an idiom particularly associated with the impasse on the Western Front, it has been especially significant as a means to politicise and to criticise the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq where British troops have been deployed in a long-standing engagement against insurgents. The expression appears to constitute a lament in this context, as the protracted and costly nature of the contemporary military operations in the two warzones became abundantly clear as the wars progressed. Within the print media, describing military, political or civilian experiences in Afghanistan or Iraq as a 'war of attrition' thereby emphasises a perception of the conflict as a bloody, pointless endeavour which has no end in sight (after Teo, 2000). The war is in this sense reported in the framework provided by the conflict of 1914-1918: They will blunder on, not to a clean defeat but to something far worse, a war of attrition whose poison will spread across a subcontinent. (Jenkins, 2003) The war of attrition in Iraq continued its bloody course yesterday with at least 63 people killed, including a busload of soldiers who died when a roadside bomb exploded in the northern city of Beiji. (Beresford, 2006) These allusions do not indicate the repetition of media clichés in the reporting of the war but an active engagement with the memory of the First World War in the comprehension of the present (after Wertsch, 2002: 15). Rather than being derived from a passive consumption of media, the use of the imagery, allusions and associations from the war of 1914-1918 serves to emphasise how the memory of the conflict is used within society as a vehicle of protest and dissent. Such a mobilisation can be further evidenced with the reporting of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments in 2004 that the Black Watch Regiment, deployed to the so-called 'Triangle of Death' near Fallujah in Iraq, would be 'home by Christmas'. This statement, made as part of a speech in the House of Commons in October 2004, was immediately placed by opponents within the context of the First World War. The haunting quality of August 1914 is observed here as the phrase 'home by Christmas' has become associated with the short-sightedness or incompetence of the British military and political elite that assured volunteers that the war would be a short, adventurous escape from civilian life (after Halifax, 2010). These connotations implied by the phrase were heavily exploited within the popular press. Indeed, writing in the Daily Mail, the columnist Peter Hitchens (2004)  Similarly, The Independent newspaper drew attention to the connections between the phrase and how it offered a cruelly ironic presage to a far more damaging and horrendous military engagement: In 1914 men rushed to enlist, fearful they would miss the 'adventure' unfolding in Belgium and France … in return for a promise that the men would be 'home by Christmas'. Four years later the survivors returned from the front, with 8.5 million of their comrades dead. (Elliot, 2004) However, the notion that troops would be 'home by Christmas', replete with its association with August 1914, is not restricted to this one incident. The phrase is repeatedly utilised throughout the period of military engagement by opponents, especially in reference to the operation of British troops in Iraq, to emphasise the duplicity, ineptitude or indifference of the British authorities. By 2006, the journalist Robert Fisk uses the inaccuracy of the phrase to illustrate the 'march of folly that has led to a bloodbath' in Iraq (Fisk, 2006). This critical employment of the claim that troops would be soon home after a short engagement abroad is further evidence of the active use of the memory of the war. The continued employment of the term demonstrates its capacity to serve as a means of indicting the policies of the British Government. In 2006, the Daily Telegraph reported on the war in Iraq through this specific frame of reference: 'Home by Christmas? Make that 2010 at least' (Harding, 2006).
Whilst in 2009, the London Evening Standard reused the phrase in an article by their defence correspondent, Robert Fox, who examined the seemingly endless and potentially fruitless pursuit of victory in Iraq, affirming the connection between the expression and notions of ineptitude: In April 2003 he pitched some 40,000 British servicemen and women into southern Iraq in the belief that, like the Tommies going to war in August 1914, they would be home by Christmas. The facts on the ground soon revealed that the British and Americans were in a land and facing a people they did not understand and could not possess -and had landed themselves with huge and unexpected problems of governance and security.
Despite the varying political hues of British newspapers, the employment of First World War frames of reference to examine the contemporary Afghanistan and Iraq Wars was conducted in the same critical manner. This similarity in form does not entail the homogeneous, media-led remembrance criticised by some commentators, but it highlights how the war of 1914-1918 is used by social and political groups to advance arguments and to understand the present (after Schudson, 1992: 5-6).

No man's land in Iraq and Afghanistan, sad shires in Britain
The use of First World War frames of reference in the reporting of the First World War is not solely conducted within a dissident political agenda. Indeed, the conflict of 1914-1918 can be observed to be mobilised throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to support the cause of the British Government and to emphasise the endeavour of the British Army (after Fairclough, 2001: 16). Such conservative perspectives undermine the oft-quoted argument from revisionist historians that the popular memory of the war has emerged from left-leaning media representations (see Bond, 2002). Indeed, in this manner, the newspaper reporting of the war demonstrates that the First World War operates as a symbolic resource that can be drawn upon to reiterate a range of viewpoints and agendas. This is clearly illustrated with the employment of the term 'no man's land' with reference to the operations conducted within the 'War on Terror' as well as wider references to the battlefield landscapes of the First World War. The purpose of such allusions is significant as it immediately places the current soldiers of the British Army in connection to the sympathetic figure of the 'Tommy in the trenches' (see McCartney, 2014). Writing in the conservative newspaper, the Daily Mail, Colonel Richard Kemp, a former Commander serving in Afghanistan, utilised this association in November 2009 as he reflected upon the recent death of a soldier in Helmand Province. Highlighting how the soldier had served in the same regiment as Harry Patch, the last veteran of the First World War, a direct association between the conflicts are made to present the heroic virtues of the armed forces: 'From the muddied fields of Agincourt to the quagmire hell of the Somme to the dry plains of Afghanistan, the British soldier has overcome his opponents in countless campaigns' (Kemp, 2009). This mode of reporting the sacrifices and endeavours of the modern army within the context of the First World War operates to negate the criticisms of what was a highly contentious decision to involve British troops in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of a multinational coalition. This can also be evidenced in the reporting of the tour of duty of Afghanistan taken by Prince Harry in 2008. Indeed, favourable reports of this member of the British royal family focused on the similarity of the experience of the 'soldier prince' with his ordinary predecessors who fought in the First World War. Prince Harry compared the two warzones directly in an interview: 'The whole place is just deserted, there are no roofs on any of the compounds, there are craters all over the place, it looks like something out of the Battle of the Somme' (Hickley, 2006).
Such a means of representing the contemporary conflicts through the compassionate frame of the war of 1914-1918 is illustrated with the use of 'no man's land' in newspaper reports. This term, with its origins in the 14th century, is most clearly associated in Britain with the First World War on the Western Front in France and Flanders. It is 'no man's land' which appears to be so redolent of the suffering of soldiers in the trenches and its use in recent newspaper reporting of the 'War on Terror' serves to emphasise a degree of solidarity with the work of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan: Major Alex Turner, an Old Etonian who read war studies at King's College London, has been awarded a medal for his pioneering work that led to insurgents being forced out of a 'no man's land' in Helmand. (Mansey, 2011) Scots sniper Harry Black stares through his rifle sight into no-man's land. Eight hundred metres in front of the 24-year-old Lance Corporal is the enemy … the Taliban. (Hamer, 2007) The use of no man's land in this manner also accompanied the reports of Prince Harry's deployment to the warzone in Afghanistan. In this representation, the prince was depicted as 'occupying' or 'surveying' 'no man's land'. The effect of such a discourse is to ensure that the prince is depicted as an ordinary soldier; an everyman whose experiences on the front lines evoke the sympathy of support granted to the 'Tommy in the trenches': And with nerves of steel he declared: 'It's just no-man's-land. They poke their heads up and that's it.' Yet at the time he was just three weeks into his posting. (Hughes, 2008) Harry was posted to the operations room at Forward Operating Base Delhi, the southernmost Allied outpost in Helmand. It's a stone's throw away from 'Line Arbroath', the frontline that looks on to a 500-metre area of No-Man's land. (Daily Record, 2008) Such reporting serves to normalise the Prince as an 'ordinary soldier' but also to garner support and sympathy for the conflict that the British Army has been detailed to fight. The media accounts that fuse the landscape of the First World War with that of Helmand or Basra offer a means to reflect on the heroism and sacrifice of the troops but not necessarily the cause for which they serve. Therefore, accounts of soldiers in the field that occupy the 'trenches' or 'no man's land' do not necessarily condemn military authorities, but rather acknowledge the efforts undertaken by the armed forces. For example, the following account of a soldier in Afghanistan in 2007 published in the Daily Mirror equates the environment of the Western Front with the endurance of modern British soldiers: Days later, he was part of a patrol on 'Taliban Hill', overlooking the no-man's land between the coalition-run area and the 'green zone' held by the terrorists. A Taliban mortar exploded in a cloud of black smoke just five metres from Marine Dodsworth, but he was saved by a crumbling mud and straw wall. 'You can't train for that,' he says. 'But we know we can't run scared. You have to get on with the job'. (Lyons, 2007) The use of the imagery of the First World War to support the efforts made in Afghanistan and Iraq by the British Army illustrates how the conflict of 1914-1918 does not occupy one single meaning or another. Rather, its use in reports concerning the 'War on Terror', demonstrates a variety of functions, from dissent towards authority to support and sympathy for the soldiers serving in the theatres of war (see Griffin, 2004). What is distinct about this process is that regardless of the cause for which the First World War is mobilised, it is done so with the intent to highlight contemporary concerns. Therefore, the imposition of the war landscape of 'no man's land' to frame perceptions can be compared to the use of the imaginative landscape of the war poets of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen in British newspaper reporting. Articles and editorials examining the military action in the regions of Helmand and Basra during the deployment of British troops from 2001 to 2014 were frequently placed within the framework provided by the war poets of 1914-1918(Van Dijk, 1996. The use of this reference provided an opportunity to draw upon the tragic, piteous image of the war to highlight issues of neglect and irresponsibility by the authorities but also the callous, futile waste of war. For example, during periods of intense operations and a corresponding rise in fatalities amongst coalition troops and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, the works of Owen (Anthem for Doomed Youth or Dulce Et Decorum Est) or Sassoon (Suicide in the Trenches or The General) could be evoked as a damning indictment of the war: Every conflict produces its anthem for doomed youth, but this is an elective crusade, fought not in extremis but because of political desires. They call it a humanitarian war. There is no such thing. (Riddell, 2003) The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est …That 'old lie' being that it is sweet and proper to die for one's country. Though the First World War poets may never be bettered … Their message needs to be applied to Iraq and Afghanistan, lest we become too enamoured with such hazardous pursuits. (James, 2011) Whilst the reporting of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq utilised the themes addressed by Owen and Sassoon, the war poets were also drawn upon as a means to criticise contemporary politicians for their policies, thereby forming a direct correlation with the presumed incompetence of the political and military elite of the First World War and the present day. For example, the journalist John Pilger, writing in the New Statesman, remarked upon former Prime Minister Tony Blair's appearance at the Cenotaph during Remembrance Day in 2003: Having shown his studied respect to the Queen, whose prerogative allowed him to commit his crime in Iraq, Blair hurried away. 'Sneak home and pray you'll never know,' wrote Siegfried Sassoon in 1917, 'The hell where youth and laughter go'. (Pilger, 2003) Such a critical perspective was particularly noticeable with the reports of the arrival back to Britain of the bodies of the dead, those who were killed in the service of their country in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a practice emerged of parading the military funeral cortège through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett, the phrase 'sad shires' from Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth, was regularly employed to illustrate the scale of death and the 'futility' of war: Watching this week's vaunted big push in Afghanistan has been infuriating beyond belief, not least because of the latest procession of soldiers' coffins, driven in the rain through sad shires, valuable and irreplaceable lives honourably lost in a rotten cause.  How apt that seems now as young soldiers return from Afghanistan in coffins and 'bugles call for them from sad shires'. Sacrifice on nowhere near the same scale of course, but sacrifice all the same. (Austen, 2008) Wilfred Owen's poem of the Great War, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth,' is deeply embedded in the culture. Among its most haunting line is the one that evokes the home front -'bugles calling for them from sad shires.' Wootton Bassett takes that on for this century: it is a sad shire of the national imagination. (Leith, 2011) Rather than merely illustrating the habitual use of clichés and standard illustrative devices within contemporary war reporting, the application of references to the First World War in the coverage of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is a significant phenomenon. The use of this interpretative framework demonstrates the manner in which the remembrance of the conflict of 1914-1918 is more than the result of a passive acceptance of film, literature and television. Indeed, the newspaper reporting of the 'War on Terror' through allusions to the First World War highlights its significance within British society as a vehicle for popular opinion. In this manner, the war fought at the outset of the 20th century still goes on as it provides a means of highlighting fears, concerns and debates in the present day. As such, the First World War can be used to understand the conflicts that were fought at the outset of the 21st century.

Conclusions
The application of CDA to the media representation of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars demonstrates the potential of studying the relationship between war, media and culture through a wider chronological setting (Stewart and Carruthers, 1996). The manner in which articles and editorials from British newspapers that engaged with the political, social and military ramifications of the 'War on Terror' utilised the cultural legacy of the First World War was highly evident. This use of references offers a means of engaging with how contemporary conflicts are represented within the spectre of previous military engagements. Scholars have highlighted how the ramifications and aftermath of wars shape future political agendas (Badsey, 2000). However, this area can be greatly enhanced through studies which seek to catalogue and comprehend the particular tropes and discourses employed in the media reporting of conflicts (Maltby and Keeble, 2007). Within these descriptions and assessments of war, a subtle interplay of language, politics and power is played out that illustrates wider social values and norms. Within the media reporting of contemporary conflicts, the echoes of past wars and engagements demonstrate more than truisms but a commentary on public and political life (after Hallin, 1989).
In the context of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in August 2014 as well as the subsequent anniversaries of events, battles and declarations of peace through to 2018, the media representation of the conflict will be crucial in understanding public remembrance. However, rather than assuming that it is television programmes such as Blackadder Goes Forth (dir. Boden, 1989) or films such as Oh! What a Lovely War (dir. Attenborough, 1969), that are responsible for public perceptions, it is in the use of the conflict as a discursive element that British society's attitudes towards the war can be assessed. The reference, allusion and comparison points taken from the conflict provide a frame of reference that is used to analyse situations from a variety of perspectives, from the dissident to the supportive. The war in this sense has no inherent meaning; it gathers its significance through the manner in which it is applied to contemporary conflicts. This demonstrates how the legacy of the First World War constitutes an active cultural response within Britain. Despite the passing of a century, the conflict can still be evoked with considerable effect. This prominence of the conflict, as illustrated by its use within the wider media regarding the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ensures that the war will not pass from public discourse. Indeed, society will continue to return to 'the trenches' and 'no man's land' as it seeks to imbue symbolism and significance upon contemporary concerns. Examining this specific mobilisation of the past to serve the interests of the present can demonstrate how through language, imagery and allusion, historical events can be utilised by individuals and communities to comment on current affairs (Brownlie, 2012(Brownlie, , 2013. In this manner, the way in which the past is brought to public recognition and remembrance through these discursive frames of reference can be used to bring governments, institutions and wider society to accountability (Fairclough, 2001).

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.