In the US Army manual on counterinsurgency, the American commander Gen. David Petraeus describes Afghanistan as a "war of perception … conducted continuously using the news media." What really matters is not so much the day-to-day battles against the Taliban as the way the adventure is sold in America, where "the media directly influence the attitude of key audiences." Reading this, I was reminded of the Venezuelan general who led a coup against the democratic government in 2002. "We had a secret weapon," he boasted. "We had the media, especially TV. You got to have the media."
Never has so much official energy been expended in ensuring journalists collude with the makers of rapacious wars which, say the media-friendly generals, are now "perpetual." In echoing the west's more verbose warlords, such as the waterboarding former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who predicated "50 years of war," they plan a state of permanent conflict wholly dependent on keeping at bay an enemy whose name they dare not speak: the public.
At Chicksands in Bedfordshire, the Ministry of Defence's psychological warfare (Psyops) establishment, media trainers devote themselves to the task, immersed in a jargon world of "information dominance," "asymmetric threats" and "cyberthreats." They share premises with those who teach the interrogation methods that have led to a public inquiry into British military torture in Iraq. Disinformation and the barbarity of colonial war have much in common.
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Maybe Patraeus's words spawn from the fact that the American public is all for war when they see a threat but want to bring home the troops as soon as we lose 1 or 2 soldiers. It's up to the civilian gov. to decide when to unleash the war dogs, but once they are out, let them do their job!
ReplyDelete8:39
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. And the public needs to stop questioning whether or not a war is necessary or just. Our government would not kill a bunch of people unless they were bad. If the govt says kill them then the public should not question it.
I encourage all young men and women to join up and help defend our country from the terrorists. You are all heroes for doing what we cannot understand and will not criticize.
Absolutely. And the public needs to stop questioning whether or not a war is necessary or just. Our government would not kill a bunch of people unless they were bad. If the govt says kill them then the public should not question it.
ReplyDeleteYou are nuts.
9:30 - but what if you distrust the government and see it as the root of all evil?
ReplyDeleteyellow journalism at it finest.
ReplyDeleteYou mean it isn't the root of all evil. Bush, Cheny, Rumsfeld, nope no evil there.
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