UW,
Most recently, al-Qaeda's al-Sahab media organization has demonstrated an ability to present, and help others to present, a reliable source of near real-time news coverage from the jihad fronts for Muslims.
You know.. it's always been something that I've seen as a contradiction about the hard-core Deobandist (Taliban) movement. They are becoming increasingly effective at waging IO campaigns using high-tech, but when they actually were in power, they were effectively "luddites".
The Taliban forbade TV, Internet, and Radio and anything that might provide a channel of information contrary to their "party line". But they sure as hell don't mind using high-technology to advertize their cause far and wide.
I certainly understand it from the basis of power and control (do as we say, not as we do), but one would think we'd be more effective in pointing out the hypocrisy to those who would use the internet to seek Jihadist "inspiration"..
Our IO and IW efforts have been pretty pathetic, IMO. I don't we've yet come up with an effective "marketing" campaign that would undermine the attractiveness of militant Islam. However, I must admit that I've not been able to offer any constructive ideas other than to proliferate the concept that God would forbid his followers from practicing "convert or die evangelism".
For example, from the perspective of outrage amongst the American people, we just has 3 soldiers captured, summarily executed, and their bodies thrown into the Euphrates river. But where is the outrage as a nation?
When our soldiers were executed at Malmedy, Belgium, in Dec, 1944, there was national outrage (as well as local retaliation by other American soldiers). It was utilized as an example of the kind of evil that our enemy was capable of perpetrating to strengthen our resolve to defeat them. I don't see that kind of IO effort being exhibited by this administration.
Hawk |
