Insane Media Manufactured Story of the Day
Thomas E. Ricks, of the Washington Post, has "sources" who have informed him that the US military is conducting a propaganda campaign "to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq." Apparently "some military intelligence officials" believe that this campaign "may have overstated Zarqawi's Importance." It is all nicely anonymous and Ricks doesn't bother to inform us that there is also very likely a whole other contingent who views the exact same set of facts in a completely different fashion. That is to say, they have a different narrative to explain the same set of facts. To begin with, they are positive about the approach.The point of this propaganda campaign, by the way, is to turn Iraqi insurgents unconnected with Zarqawi, against him by exaggerating his importance and magnifying such qualities as the fact that he is Jordanian, rather than Iraqi.
Though this campaign latterly seems to be working, Ricks dislikes the fact that the campaign has in some ways made Zarqawi more important than he is -- made him into a caricature, as it were.
Similar, for example, to the way the insurgents and the leftists scream Abu Ghraib, Bush Lied and Guantanamo Bay every other minute and turn everything, including themselves, into caricatures. But apparently it is only wrong and worthy of special note when it is our guys using the tactic successfully.
Ricks also seems to be annoyed that some of this "propaganda" about Zarqawi, which is meant for internal Iraq consumption, has been reflected in American media as well, though that was not the audience it was intended for.
Ricks never mentions that the tactic of propaganda is one of the most important elements of this war. The other side has a firm handle on this. But somehow when we use the tactic as well, this is considered to be "lying."
It's a war people. This tactic isn't cruel; it's simply a way of manipulating the other side to do what we want them to do. That is what is called winning a war. Ruses are legitimate methods of fighting wars. That includes disinformation.
Yet somehow Ricks and hordes of "realist" leftists now consider this to be an illegitimate approach to fighting a war.
posted by Alcibiades @ 2:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home