Great discussion, as always.

I've posted in earlier threads about why I think it's important that we get in the IO fight and very much agree with Josh's thoughts.

How much Americans will watch internet videos or read stories containing pictures that generally present a more positive image of what goes on in Iraq remains to be seen. We haven't tried it, so I'm not convinced just yet that it won't have an impact. What troubles me about this whole discussion is that those who have served in Iraq/Afghanistan will tell you that 99% of the time nothing that could be perceived as "negative" happens. In fact, very often just the opposite occurs. Problem is that these stories rarely get out. Is it the "strategic" corporal's job to transmit these stories, or at least to pass them to a platoon, company or battalion IO officer to transmit (part of our problem is that we don't have IO officers at these levels)? I say it depends. If the "strategic" corporal is in the middle of clearing a building or a trench, of course not. On the other hand, if the "strategic" corporal is eating a meal at an Iraqi's house, conducting a patrol with the Iraqi Police, playing in a soccer game, etc. why not participate? After all most Marines will take pictures/video of these types of events anyway and tuck them away for photo albums when they get home. For me, whether Marines use digital or videocameras when on patrol is a non-issue. They've done so for the past 4 years. Further, the new Distributed Ops package has in excess of 180 digital cameras designated for every infantry battalion. For me then, the question is really how do we teach Marines to use the pictures and videos that they take when on patrol to help not only in the intel battle but probably more important is in the IO battle.

Can pictures or videos from the tactical level have an impact at the strategic level? I think so. The enemy's efforts to gain strategic success through tactical IO actions is most definitely working. Consider some of the comments made by those that attempted to attack Fort Dix: these guys clearly stated that they observed videos on the internet showing insurgents' success in attacking us in Iraq/Afghanistan and therefore felt they could do the same. And it's widely known that insurgent videos from Iraq/Afghanistan are used to support the global jihad recruiting effort. I think it would be great if instead of focusing our PAO/IO efforts on preventing bad news from getting out to the public, we instead focused our efforts in taking positive videos/pictures from tactical actions and flooding insurgent websites with them, while at the same time doing our best to transmit them to the American public.