Monday, December 18, 2006
Snuff films
One security analyst I heard speak claimed that practically every insurgent operation in Iraq had a video camera unit attached, but until recently practically all Jihadi video was in Arabic. "Arabic is the language of the [Sunni Salafist] Jihad, and Jihadi videos were not even widely distributed in places like Indonesia or even Pakistan because they were in Arabic." But that has changed, he said, and now the videos were making their appearance in English, sometimes in American Internet forums, and that for the first time Jihadi propaganda was being produced in German. The connection with Germany was momentarily incomprehensible until the history of the 9/11 attackers came to mind. Et in arcadia ego sum. The overarching purpose of those videos was to demonstrate American mortality and the vulnerability of the West. To spread the word that it is fun and easy to hunt Americans. The American officer who had authored the counterinsurgency lessons learned in Anbar, Capt. Travis Patriquin, himself died in combat, but not before warning that the ideas which eventually killed him were leaping over borders into the wider world.
The virulence of this meme is suggested by the circumstance that, in order to charge it, an unending supply of snuff films was required. And the importance of the media, as a sphere of combat was illustrated by Patriquin's claim that the kinetic impact of insurgent operations themselves was itself subordinate to collecting the video of the operations.
Read it all, and consider how enemy propaganda might bear on domestic "anti-war" dissent.
11 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Dec 18, 09:52:00 AM:
There have been no surprises in Iraq.
Before the invasion of Iraq, the New York Times published an article about enemy plans to use guerilla tactics from the Vietnam War.
Propaganda is not a new tool in warfare.
Most Americans are impatient.
The Bush administration should have been prepared.
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Dec 18, 09:58:00 AM:
By skipsailing, at
Mon Dec 18, 10:26:00 AM:
The Bush administration should have been prepared.
yeah, so? Of what value is this statement now?
It seems to me that we are locked into a ESPN play by play mentality these days. We reserve the right to pass judgement on everything around us as if the conflicts we face are little more that NFL games.
so we live with "play by Play" "Color commenters" and talk show hosts all of whom are telling us all the "shouldas"
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Dec 18, 10:44:00 AM:
Skipsailing: "Of what value is this statement now?"
To keep it from happening again.
I thought people had learned this stuff from the Vietnam war. Apparently some people have to step on a rattlesnake twice before they watch where they walk.
By skipsailing, at
Mon Dec 18, 11:31:00 AM:
I simply don't agree with you DEC.
the endless chattering is just amazing. Everyone suddenly knows everything. the problem is, none of this provides any insight into what needs to be done now.
For example, I sincerely doubt that most Americans have even a passing understanding of the culture of the ME. I doubt they have a clue about just how misdirected these people are.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's OP in the LAT clearly demonstrates the issue. the arabs are ignorant of the world around them, yet they love to make snuff videos. OK, fine.
So, now what?
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Dec 18, 12:26:00 PM:
Now what?
To radical Islamists, religious war is a sacred duty whenever there is a chance of success against the "infidel."
Bottom line: You have to convince the Islamic radicals that they have no chance of success.
The Bush adminstration has convinced them of the opposite.
Seldom is there only one way to solve a large problem. You know the options. Pick one. Just make sure it achieves the goal.
I would pull out of Iraq now and fight a secret war in the alleys of the world.
By skipsailing, at
Mon Dec 18, 01:16:00 PM:
I stay in Iraq and do the secret war too.
By Dawnfire82, at
Mon Dec 18, 08:36:00 PM:
"I would pull out of Iraq now"
Then you will never convince them that they can't win.
By SR, at
Mon Dec 18, 09:00:00 PM:
I actually think it has to be a not so secret war, and therein lies the difficulty.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Mon Dec 18, 09:32:00 PM:
To me, Iraq is a write-off, Dawnfire82. The damage to America's image of invincibility is done.
Two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward--that's life.
"You got to know when to hold 'em; know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away; know when to run." -- Kenny Rogers, "The Gambler"
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Dec 19, 07:37:00 PM:
We have a sad tendency to run away if things don't go as planned. The pullout from Vietnam, Operation Eagle Claw, Beirut, Mogadishu, Khobar... these are the things that they use to justify their attempts. They don't have to win. They just have to last long enough for our political will to give out. And it will.
Run away, and no enemy (or ally) will ever trust us to stick it out again. If even President Bush, the authoritarian cowboy, can't exercise America's yellow streak then there's no hope. It's better to lose than to run away, because then at least we've demonstrated that we can stick it out to the end instead of throwing up our arms and wandering away when we lose interest, abandoning any remaining friends and leaving more enemies alive than deserve to be.
Imagine a world without American deterrence. With no outside willing and able force to contain North Korea, Iran, or China vis a vis Taiwan. Or in the future, India and Russia.
If we quit Iraq early, America's hegemonic credibility will be dead and the world will cease to be unipolar, or relatively peaceful; it'll slide back into that war-prone, balance-of-power fixated, great power multi-polarity that people were wishing against in another thread. And we'll sit here in our hemisphere, shaking our fists at a world that ignores us because we'll have proven that we aren't tough enough to play anymore.
