How do you change the perception?

[BILL]

TWO DIFFERENT THEATERS

The phrase "By Sword, Deed, and Word" is a pithy one that bears reflecting upon. Tempest in a teacup also comes to mind...
THE INTERNET IS A PRETTY LARGE TEA CUP...
My experience in Iraq is that there is a very strong (much much stronger than the internet) spoken information network. 'Information' was passed rapidly among friends and acquaintances, and like the childhood game of 'telephone' things would get garbled from time to time. Concrete things like access to water or electricity or the freedom to go to the market or visit friends with minimal security worries, and jobs were things that would get quickly passed along the spoken information network. Perhaps this information network accounts for some share of the successes we are seeming to have with the US & Iraqi surge ( http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...ing_al_qae.php )

I agree, but they are two differnet theaters, which do influence each other.
Boots on the ground are critical.
So are boots on the Internet, the terrorist are leading there by default.

Here in the west, in the land of abundance, we like to gather around the electronic campfire and talk, and perhaps as a result of this cultural tick, we have a distorted view of the internet's importance. This is not to negate the importance of C2I to any organization or indeed the continually rising power of the internet. As an old grunt who has been around the block once or twice however it always seems that in order to really influence things one needs to have boots on the ground in order to get things done. Handbills, paper or electronic, are not enough.

You make a good point 'the influence of the Internet on home folk', and their view of the war. USA could be in a leadership position on the Info war on the net if the will exists. Currently USA does not set the Internet Info paradigm, the terrorist do. 4,000 sites, vids, magazines, propaganda, Here is an EXCELLENT article on their use of the net: By Jeffrey Carr.

"distorted view of the internet's importance", Is our view distorted or is al Qaeda's view paying off?

We ignore this venue, Internet Info war, at our own peril.

Bill