Defense Secretary Gate's Landon Lecture at K-State.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I liked the "embarrasing" quote in reference to our ability to leverage information operations.

"Public Relations was invented in the United States, yet we are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture, about freedom and democracy, about our policies and our goals. It is just plain embarrassing that al Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the internet than America. As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago, how has one man in a cave managed to out-communicate the world’s greatest communications society?

Speed, agility and cultural relevance are not terms that come readily to mind when discussing U.S. Strategic Communications. "

[Cannoneer No. 4]

DefenseLink Speech http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/...?speechid=1199

[Rank amateur]

yet we are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture

Because it's hard, probably impossible and more importantly, it's unnecessary. All we need to do is convince people not to blow themselves up. We don't even need to figure out what to say.

Where Boys Grow Up to be Jihadis – Andrea Elliott, New York Times

In the article, a young Muslim who was thinking about going to Iraq decided not to because he didn't want to blow up Muslims.

That's the message. If you join Al Qeada, you'll blow up Muslims. The message is already working. We just need to help spread it.

[Ron Humphrey]

Because it's hard, probably impossible and more importantly, it's unnecessary. All we need to do is convince people not to blow themselves up. We don't even need to figure out what to say.

Where Boys Grow Up to be Jihadis – Andrea Elliott, New York Times

In the article, a young Muslim who was thinking about going to Iraq decided not to because he didn't want to blow up Muslims.

That's the message. If you join Al Qeada, you'll blow up Muslims. The message is already working. We just need to help spread it.

I understand where your coming from but might I ask, is it too much to think we might also approach it in a way which says its also not ok to blow yourself up even though the people aren't muslim.

I mean I'm not sure that particular argument, even if widely disseminated would have effectively stopped those who attacked on 9/11, or countless other times and places.

By singularly focusing on this it would be in following with the dehumanization of those who don't fit a particular mold.

Just a thought...

[Rank amateur]

I understand where your coming from but might I ask, is it too much to think we might also approach it in a way which says its also not ok to blow yourself up even though the people aren't muslim.

Yes. People who hate you won't take lectures from you, even if you're right.

[invictus0972]

That's the message. If you join Al Qeada, you'll blow up Muslims. The message is already working. We just need to help spread it.

I agree with this statement; however, convincing them not to kill the "near enemy" is only half the battle. We then need to convince them not to kill the "far enemy". If I remember correctly, this is the split that UBL had with Azzam. UBL was willing to take the fight to his fellow Muslims and Azzam was not. Azzam was only willing to fight non-Muslims, and UBL had him killed for his different point of view, at least this is the speculation.

The bottom line is that we need to continue, as you suggest, to convince them to stop killing fellow Muslims, and this will help us in Iraq. However, we still have that global Islamic insurgency to deal with, which will require the same kind of IO campaign that we are seeing in Iraq!

[Rank amateur]

I agree with this statement; however, convincing them not to kill the "near enemy" is only half the battle. We then need to convince them not to kill the "far enemy".

Not really. The only ones trying to kill the far enemy have hitched their wagon to Al Qaeda. If they can't recruit new members, they'll weaken: especially since they tend to blow up their own members.

[kehenry1]

The true failing of the Japanese air force. There is a certain overt attrition in favor of your enemy when you blow your own guys up. Particularly when they see that it doesn't actually end with your victory.

[wm]

The true failing of the Japanese air force. There is a certain overt attrition in favor of your enemy when you blow your own guys up. Particularly when they see that it doesn't actually end with your victory.

And, in a non-violent vain, consider the Shakers. We don't see too many of them around any more now, do we?

It's a little hard to keep your organization going when one of its central tenets (no sex in the case of the Shakers; suicide for the AQ looney tunes) is in direct contradiction to longevity. Reminds me of the Judean People's Front crack suicide squad in Monty Python's Life of Brian.