Iraqi Insurgent Media: War of Images and Ideas

[Dominique R. Poirier]

I would agree to a point, MR, but I'd also point out that in this age of "sensitivity," many government outlets will shy away from more aggressive techniques for fear of being accused of being racist or anti-Islam. That's a level of spin that puts many on the automatic defensive these days, with the responsibility for proof being put on those who are accused instead of the accuser.

We do need an aggressive IO campaign that points out every atrocity, flaw, and failure of our opponents, but I fear that we don't have the fortitude on an institutional level to get it done the way it should be done.

Well said, Mr. Blair. I’m wondering exactly the same question and I am inclined to wonder, since some years already, whether there might not be room for abstract considerations such as: Does the concept of mutual deterrence may take place in information warfare?

I explain.

We are getting familiar with certain form of influence such as movies, since some times. But while we may correctly assume that a movie such as Fight Club, for example, corresponds to the expression of a general concern about actuality, then we may wonder whether many other movies like Twelve Monkeys, Dances with Wolves, The Matrix, A Lathe of Heaven, or even the latest sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean owe equally to the same concerns?

In all these movies and in many other else I didn’t name here the enlightened and the specialist will easily find some unmistakable patterns belonging to far leftist underground conspiracy, terrorism “ethically justified,” and Romantic-inspired forms of violence and subversion, and else.

In revenge, as you suggest it, we may express some difficulties in our attempts to find similar forms of retaliations from those who are aimed at. It is surprising since it seems so obvious that there is matter enough to make a movie featuring in a burlesque manner the daily lives and destinies of would-be terrorists and slovenly naïve conspirers, for example. This way of doing things would exert ovious devastating effects and influence upon the mind of those who feel concerned, I believe. It would instill doubt in the mind of many. It would downplay and de-dramatize the way people perceive them. If ever some think that I may be wrong in my assumption, then let me cite for a while Brian Jenkins who made these two interesting statements about al-Qaeda:

“For bin Laden, rejection and ridicule would be worse than death. He berates those who do not heed God’s call to jihad. Denunciations of jihadist attacks that kill Muslims—even from militant groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas—cause him concern. (….)

We in the West sometimes seem to pay more attention to bin Laden’s latest screeds than do those in the community he addresses. It is hugely entertaining for the Muslim world to watch the jihadist torment the tiger, but to many Muslims, even those angered by U.S. policies, bin Laden is a crackpot.” - Jenkins, Brian Michael. - Unconquerable nation: knowing our enemy, strengthening ourselves – Rand Corporation, 2006, Pages 105-107.

What do we fear about to be so hesitating?

I understand your point Mr. Metz. We have some difficulty to adapt our communication to non-occidental cultures, and I acknowledge that I tend to focus my attention on those who live outside the Arabic area.