Mullah Omar's Eid al Fitr Message

[MSG Proctor]

Carl, that dynamic is at work now, however hampered by two massive obstacles: lack of mass communication apparatus and 80% illiteracy rate here.

Our operators have to adjust to IO in a theater where print/broadcast media is not the main IO transmitter to the more realistic appraisal that Mosques are the real means of 'mass communication' here. Of course the Taliban knows this and leverages it deftly in the face of our sometimes clumsy and overly-secular approaches. Hence Mullah Omar's theologically appealing call to join the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" as the "real" government of this country.

The real difficulty here is our proclivity to hamstringing ourselves with arrogant insistence on framing all things in Western paradigms (religion and political life should be kept apart). Acknowledging the primacy of the Ulema councils, Mulawis, Mullahs, Mosques and Madrassas just wrankles the sensibility of some of our operators in palpable ways.

You would think such thinking would be obvious in a COIN operation in a country that self-identifies as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

[carl]

Carl, that dynamic is at work now, however hampered by two massive obstacles: lack of mass communication apparatus and 80% illiteracy rate here.

If anything comes of that or seems to be coming of that, could you let us know? It would be very interesting to see who what and how as it is happening, if it happens.