And for today's heart-warming story from Iraq...
Abu Muqawama was reading the Economist's review of Marc Sageman's new book yesterday when he came across this passage (which also refers to Daniel Byman's new book):
Both authors believe that in the war of ideas Americans should focus on jihadist brutality rather than trying to burnish their own image.
Abu Muqawama then glanced down at the front page of Saturday's Times of London:
Baghdad’s fragile peace was shattered yesterday when explosives strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome were detonated by remote control in crowded pet markets, killing at least 91 people in the worst attacks that the capital had experienced for almost a year.
Iraqi and American officials blamed al-Qaeda, and accused the terrorist organisation of plumbing new depths of depravity. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said that al-Qaeda’s use of mentally-handicapped women as bombers showed that it had “no political programme here that is acceptable to a civilised society and that this is the most brutal and the most bankrupt of movements”.
Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador, said: “There is nothing they won’t do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that.”
Update: Taking advantage of those of you joining us through Instapundit, does anyone out there know how Islamic law differs among the four major schools with respect to the mentally retarded and incapacitated? Abu Muqawama knows there is a section in Bakhtiar's Encyclopedia of Islamic Law: A Compendium of the Major Schools on this, but, wouldn't you know it, doesn't happen to have that in front of him at the moment. It sure would be nice for the public affairs officers at CENTCOM to keep an Islamic law scholar on speed dial, though. (That would be a great conversation to listen in on, wouldn't it? "Salaam alaykum. Shlonak? Al-hamdu lillah. Ya hajj, we have a situation in Baghdad that we're pretty sure ain't 'halal' if you know what I mean...)
9 comments:
Not the first time they've done it either. There have been attacks using similarly disabled people before, including one involving a 15 year old kid that was used to (IIRC) attack a line of old ladies waiting to collect pension checks.
You can't make this shit up...this should be the only info ops we need, but since we're one step above incompetent, it's a little more difficult. (In case you were wondering what actually being incompetent is, just take a look at NATO/ISAF.)
One thing I've noticed is that in many ways, the US military is still wedded to the Vietnam model. They hold One Big Press Briefing each day to Explain What It All Means to the huddled masses at home and and any "furriners" who may be listening. This is added to an intense institutional distrust of the alphabet media which leads to a near-loathing of ALL media. They have tried to get Michael Yon - of all people - shipped home on several occasions or at least denied access to frontline troops. A curious idea has emerged in the .mil that "controlling information" means taking the Ernie King approach. Adm. King was once asked what his public affairs people should tell the press. He replied, "Don't tell them anything. When it's over we'll tell them who won."
Then they whine that people at home "just don't get it." Well, guess what, the One Big Press Conference doesn't work and never has. They complain that everybody sees the car bomb and nobody sees the SeaBees building a school. Jesus' remark about hiding a light under a basket comes to mind.
People want to know what's happening on the sharp end, not what some lard-butt colonel or general THINKS is going on. That's why Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin won Pulitzers during WWII and Ike's PIO didn't.
The press, for it's part, has settled for the "suicide bombing of the day video" and used that as a paradigm for the whole American effort over there. Now with a presidential campaign to focus their attention and resources, they're not even doing that much. They would rather tell us how many square inches of Britney Spears were on display last night than take a long, hard, and BALANCED look at events in the world. In doing so they have lost credibility. Bluntly, polls show the American people do not trust the alphabets to give them the real story and lacking any meaningful effort by the administration, the .mil or anyone else to address their questions are left to believe the worst.
Wonks like us in the AM "tribe" are a tiny, tiny minority who have the background to cut through the clouds of Bovine Scatology and discern some sense of the truth. Most folks have not the time or the tools to do so and here is where BOTH the press and the military have failed the American people.
I don't know if there is a workable solution to this in our lifetime.
*pounds head*
You hit on the answer early in your comment. Old media is on the way out, new media, like Mike Yon, is the future. The best thing the military can do is accept that and begin embracing it. We need a concerted effort to utilize this sort of underground media reporting, yet at the same time not appear fake or canned.
I think a good place to start is encouraging blogging by active duty troops. The two examples I can think of are Badgers Forward, written by a field grade officer who, when running his blog by his CO per OPSEC regs, was not only given the green light but was encouraged to become the unofficial unit blogger. The other example was the Kaboom blog AM recently linked to, which is written by a Lt. but has his Captain's approval and encouragement.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the exception rather than the rule, and the IO realm is poorer for it. Just changing the Army's institutional opinion on blogging would do wonders, I think.
Yes, our IO model is based on a failed mid 20th century model, but then again...what is modern in the Army except for rebels and veterans? Veterans who have now left.
I cannot stop saying it enough: start firing people at the top, most of them in fact. Maybe Donald Trump can be the next SecDef.
And to anyone still in: stick it to the man, adopt a nom de guerre/nom de blog (my name is not elf of course, nor am I suffering from Lord of the Rings delusions) and give the people the straight stuff right when you come off the road. If our superiors can't win or won't fight we owe them NOTHING. Certainly not craven silence.
Problem is the Koran has a lot of legal support for the duty to lie/refuse support to infidels like the US when a member of the muslim ummat (community) does something wrong to protect the faith. So the very act of a US official approaching the scholar might make him biased towards approving the act. Islam is a religion with no history of self-criticism.
[Yusuf Ali 3:28] Let not the believers Take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah: except by way of precaution, that ye may Guard yourselves from them. But Allah cautions you (To remember) Himself; for the final goal is to Allah.
Here's a link for the duty to deceive
http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=3&tid=8052
Here's a writeup with some mention of the alternative interpretation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiyya
I'm guessing that if you asked the press why they wouldn't report things like this is that they'd *say* they don't want to stir up anti-Islamic hatred. But I think the real reason is that they want the (Bush-led) US to lose.
wpatgang: You could give the press as much information as there was and they'd still complain they weren't being told everything.
The military is right to be suspicious of the press. They remember how our own press helped us to lose Vietnam. The North Vietnamese knew this, too, and depended on it.
Kill the retards before they kill us! I see a million years of this. Just like stone axes never changed for that long, a few years ago, followed by more years, and then they invented retards. You know, people who pretend to be dumb, and drool a lot, but really have the ability to really kill more people than smart people do. Or is Down "Syndrome" a smart person stuck in a suicide-worthy body? I could Wikipedia it, but that site is causing my eyes to need a screen saver. And this is newsworthy why? To make the next retard pine for their fifteen minutes of fame along with f*cking virgin mud forever, since they can't do that now? What's next? Robots given promise of a soul at all? White kids bored at school? A love bomb? I want a love bomb. Oh, they tried that. LSD mist. Soldiers didn't all scatter. Some became instant Navy Seals, on the WRONG side of the battle!!! Got some religion in them, suddenly no longer fearing death, a lot like jungle hunters used to sharpen their senses for the hunt. But retards? RETARDS?! Shoot to kill. Next time you see one? Trip them. If they explode, then trip another one. If they don't then use them like a video game to push them over the rest of the line of cousin–mating (40% first cousin marriages in Islam) waddlers. And especially stop anybody who looks jetlagged or tired at airports, for two hours, as you spy me for annoyance factors like sweat and sudden glances.
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