Seeking comments on viral I/O video

[Bill Moore]

The impact of this particular video will probably be nil to minimal. However watching this right after reading the excellent article on "The Power of Political Mobilization" in Issue 7 of the SWJ, it really made me wonder if our military truely has enough strategic corporals to facilitate mobilizing the population to support our effort. While acts like this are mainly intended to entertain fellow soldiers and blow off stress, the reality, as we all know, is that they end up on places like U-Tube where the entire global population can download them, and then spin them to support their message. Look the American soldiers hate Muslims, they're not here to protect you, etc. Again this was clowning around, but it is one more straw on the camel's back in this IO war. While I agree with previous comments on political correctness impacting our operations, in this case I don't see this as PC comment, but rather a strategic argument on why we have the real the guys in occassionally, and explain the potential undesired 2d order effects.

bismark, while I don't deny Iranin meddling, don't forget the Iraqi military had MANPADS, and we sure as heck didn't even get close to securing 10% of their arms initially. The Iraqi insurgents don't need much support from outside nations in this area, but none the less they have received EFPs from some entity in Iran, and the level of sosphistication of some recent attacks indicate they received training from a capable special operations unit (most likely Iran). I do think the Iranina Special Operations is very capable, and this isn't just reflected in the performance of their surrogate force the Hezbollah, but I personally saw a counter terrorist unit I was training with who recently returned from training in Iran, and their skills were markedly improved. The soldiers who went there thought the training was some of the best they received.

Iran is obviously playing a political game of brinksmanship, but don't confuse the current regime with the regime that supported the atrocities in Lebanon. Motivations may be different now, and what would be interesting is to see why they think they have us by the balls now, thus can (and so far have) get away with their support of various factions in Iraq? If nothing else they are survivors, so I'm not 100% convinced that the support coming from Iran is authorized by the highest levels of government. They want to stick around for awhile. Like a lot of Middle Eastern Governments, they may not have enough political strength to bring their subordinates to heel.

[bismark17]

wow. The value of this website is reflected in your response. You know far more than I do. Good lord. I can only go through the open source stuff that I have read. My hat goes off to all of you guys fighting the good fight. My family thanks all of you!!! I carry a gun when I have the privilage to be with my daughter, just in case. You guys in Theatre are in a whole different dynamic.

It's a good point about the manpads. I am just a cop in CONUS these days. It just makes me wonder why suddenly POTUS decided to now bring up the Iranian issue when we all know they have been heavily involved for a long period of time. A lot of Americans have suffered due to them. That our media is trying to make it look like some kind of Seepah gone wild is ridiculous. I really doubt they have a bunch of agents that are freelancing. These are just my opinions....I realize that i am getting into an areas that no one who is able to, can....I guess I will quit the ranting and just thank all of you out there keeping us safe and all of you that have created this site!

[120mm]

The rants have a purpose. They stir up discussion. I posted the video, knowing it would stir debate, but not really knowing where it would lead.

I count myself as ignorant in that particular corner of Islam. I thought that the actual act of being contaminated with pork would actually get you sent to Hell. But my read on observed Muslim behavior at Armor School suddenly got a readjustment with this thread.

Suddenly, a lot of things just came together. Thanks!

[Sarajevo071]

I count myself as ignorant in that particular corner of Islam. I thought that the actual act of being contaminated with pork would actually get you sent to Hell. But my read on observed Muslim behavior at Armor School suddenly got a readjustment with this thread.

Suddenly, a lot of things just came together. Thanks!

It’s good to see that people are learning more and changing they perceptions… For Muslim to eat pork is forbidden, like some other stuff, BUT if his life is depend on it, he CAN eat it. That fact alone blowing all that stupidity off. And second, being killed with “impure” bullet doesn’t send anyone to hell since that Muslim didn’t eat in/take it on his own will. He was killed by enemy bullet. That’s all. Where those bullets were dip, hold or roll into means nothing. Matter of fact, it is really funny to see that there is some people out there who think that that is big deal and that is “working”.

[goesh]

I don't see any provacative value with this video. It's not going to produce any rage in anyone to the point of causing them to make any tactical mistakes and take unnecessary risks. On the contrary, it will be put out as proof that America hates islam and is making war on islam. I can see al jazeera running that video on national tv in any number of places.

[BILL]

This video was posted 2X before on other sites with very few hits.
we found it,
We re-titled it and it got over 85,000 views.
Nice propaganda piece:
It has a nice implication; 4 bullet holes in YOU, as Insurgent.
It could have other pro-terror implications, but you need to get past the 4 bullet holes first,
which we have already keyed in the viewers mind.
http://warintel.blogspot.com/2007/06...-standing.html
The interplay between the title and content is very important to getting some
viral status to the vid ( lots of plays ).

The first vid mentioned has over 240,000 views,
Post it to your site, and track it on your logs.
You should get a concept of what countrys are
viewing it, and the search words used to find it,
Form an demographic from your log data
and you should get an good idea of the impact
of the video, and on whom.
There has to be an appeal of some sort, positive or negative; to get 240,000 + views.



Bill

[Stan]

I am just a cop in CONUS these days.

Bismark, My hat's off to you ! I wouldn't have your job over EOD ever ! You have to establish communication with the "bad" guys and figure something out quickly.

They want to stick around for awhile. Like a lot of Middle Eastern Governments, they may not have enough political strength to bring their subordinates to heel.

Bill's point is dead on ! Even 17 years later following independence, some of the former east bloc cannot contend with their "subordinates". A trip to Tbilisi, Georgia makes the wild, wild west look like a picnic gone out of control.