Insurgent Video Targets Blackwater

[ODB]

I think this is another perfect example of how we are losing the I/O battle. The question is how do we gain the upper hand and maintain it in today's I/O environment?

[SteveMetz]

I think this is another perfect example of how we are losing the I/O battle. The question is how do we gain the upper hand and maintain it in today's I/O environment?

I don't think we can win away games.

[Ron Humphrey]

I think this is another perfect example of how we are losing the I/O battle. The question is how do we gain the upper hand and maintain it in today's I/O environment?

I don't think we can win away games.

Just depends on who we have workin with us.

Not sure I've seen anything from AQ or others which comes anywhere close to making Private Military Contractors look nearly as evil as these guys-

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/

[ODB]

I don't think we can win away games.

I wonder if we didn't have as much red tape could we have a fighting chance?

[SteveMetz]

I wonder if we didn't have as much red tape could we have a fighting chance?

IMO, wouldn't make much of a difference. No one can be consistently psychologically effective in a radically different culture.

[Ken White]

who might be able to help us have no real incentive to do so and several incentives to avoid helping us. Being the big kid on the block has its disadvantages -- nobody thinks you need help and most think you're a little too big for comfort.

I don't think most nations wish us harm but I do believe most have a vested interest, no matter how minor, in seeing us stub our toes. They may not throw a banana peel in front of us but they also won't waste effort telling us it's there or trying to pick it up.

Goes with the territory...

[marct]

I don't think most nations wish us harm but I do believe most have a vested interest, no matter how minor, in seeing us stub our toes. They may not throw a banana peel in front of us but they also won't waste effort telling us it's there or trying to pick it up.

Got to agree with that. Partly, I suspect, it's just self interest - "if the US fraks up then we'll do better and get better access to the resources" type thing. Another part, I suspect, is just sheer frustration of the "we've told them time and time again and they don't listen" type.

Goes with the territory...

Yup, it does .

[Ken White]

...Another part, I suspect, is just sheer frustration of the "we've told them time and time again and they don't listen" type.

and the fascinating thing is 'they' don't realize that we refuse to listen because we can see their track record in most spheres is not only no better than ours but in many cases is not nearly as good...

[bluegreencody]

IMO, wouldn't make much of a difference. No one can be consistently psychologically effective in a radically different culture.

Especially with the history of colonization in the region, the history of racism/slavery in Western countries, and the nature of today's globalized liberal market economy...

[Ron Humphrey]

Especially with the history of colonization in the region, the history of racism/slavery in Western countries, and the nature of today's globalized liberal market economy...

are a little slow. Could you elaborate on what exactly that means

[bluegreencody]

are a little slow. Could you elaborate on what exactly that means

and I haven't observed these things as being a concern to this posting yet. Maybe these things are so obvious they don't need to be mentioned. It just seems to me that any conversation about how allies (or clients) see the U.S. needs to consider these issues... it is more helpful than just saying that we are arrogant, because it gives context to the situation. I don't think people around the world care if we brag, if we are arrogant, about going to the moon first, or even Mars (I don't know about Venus). The perception of arrogance wasn't created in a vacuum and I don't think it is a monolithic perception of the entire U.S. society.

[bluegreencody]

are a little slow. Could you elaborate on what exactly that means

Frantz Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth" is a perfect example of what I am talking about. However people feel about his evolutionary theory of violence, I don't think anybody can disagree that it is a powerful example of, what I will call, an insurgent perspective that integrates a particular anti-colonial, non-white view of history.
BTW, is this suggested or required reading in military training/schools?

[Ranger94]

IMO, wouldn't make much of a difference. No one can be consistently psychologically effective in a radically different culture.

I am not following the logic in this one. Wouldn't this statement have to be true for AQ working against the West?

[marct]

Hi Ranger,

I am not following the logic in this one. Wouldn't this statement have to be true for AQ working against the West?

Not really, it depends upon what specific cultural elements they are aiming at. For example, the are certain universals that anyone can use - children and violence against them being the simplest one to see. Fairly standard propaganda aimed at showing how the opponent attacks and kills children will pretty much work all of the time.

With regards to the West, there is a meme complex that can best be described as self-righteous, self-(i.e. West)hating and, most importantly, self-blaming which offers "salvation" through (cultural)self-immolation. While this is often referred to as "left wing", that's actually incorrect; it actually comes out of a rather psychotic other-worldly orientation (the same one that gave us Savonarola, the Stylites and the fraticelli). All AQ has to do is aim at this particular meme complex and its messages will be picked up and transmuted by the current carriers of that complex.

[SteveMetz]

I am not following the logic in this one. Wouldn't this statement have to be true for AQ working against the West?

Sure, but what makes you think AQ's IO have been that effective in the West? I mean, if you look at their strategic psychological aims vis a vis the West, how many have they attained?

[marct]

Sure, but what makes you think AQ's IO have been that effective in the West? I mean, if you look at their strategic psychological aims vis a vis the West, how many have they attained?

Withdrawl of Spain from the MNF
Decrease in UK troops in Iraq
Increase in global price of oil
Election of a Democrat congress (2006)
......