The name will probably be changed, but for now there it is.
We have tools & techniques at our disposal other than bombs. Even when the enemy is not hijacking our planes and blowing up sidewalk cafés, they are striking at us silently. Their propaganda permeates our society; videos of terrorist training camps are available on the internet. Although these things do not cause the vast majority of peaceful people to become sympathisers of the fanatical regimes, small terrorist cells located all over the world are strongly motivated by such things.
Unfortunately, western influence in strictly forbidden by the Taliban. Televisions & VCRs, when discovered, are smashed & burned. I wouldn’t be surprized to learn that the owners of such devices are hanged. Tokyo Rose would become hoarse long before anyone in Afganistan heard her. So we’re limited insofar as being able to introduce any propaganda into the country directly.
But what about gathering up our best Spielbergs and getting Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic to come up with our own video. One that shows charismatic leaders guzzling whiskey & looking at Playboy centerfolds while eating pork chops. Or a few minutes of him sitting amongst his advisors chatting about how easy it is to sucker the Islamic faith into a bogus Jihad. And that whole 70 virgins in the afterlife thing? He can’t believe so many of his suicide bombers are even buying into that! (advisors chuckle)
You can’t tell me that we couldn’t come up with a good bin Laden look-alike. Just a little bit of digital editing & voice impersonation would make for some very convincing reverse propaganda. But would it be effective? Very few of the tapes would make it into Afganistan, but they probably would spread all over the world depending on how sensational they were. A hundred 1st generation videos would be copied & spread like spam email.
Authenticity would be critical, but I think we could outdo ourselves if we tried. But it’s dirty pool. If we’re discovered, it doesn’t look good. Would we even consider a propaganda war? What a dirty underhanded trick, the world might say. I think that misinformation is part of the game. Spies have to lie & cheat to stay under cover.
Attrayant:Authenticity would be critical, but I think we could outdo ourselves if we tried. But it’s dirty pool. If we’re discovered, it doesn’t look good.
And wouldn’t that just reinforce the impression of America/the West that terrorists are trying to promote? “Look at how those blasphemous heathens lie and cheat in order to falsely slander Islam and Muslims!” I think that’s exactly how their PR would put it. And given the activity and liberty of our “scandal-sheet” and other types of journalism, I kind of doubt that such a hoax would remain undiscovered for long.
I also think that we don’t really need to make up fibs about boozing and skirt-chasing and heterodox theology in order to tarnish the image of terrorists. The truth is, they plot to kill thousands of innocent civilians. That’s enough to tarnish anybody’s image in the eyes of the vast majority of the world, and the minds of the few who feel otherwise are probably completely closed to any form of contradiction anyway.
Unfortunately the Pentagon never got a chance to try this out, but hey, it woulda worked, wouldn’t it? 'Cause we know how dumb those Cubano Commies are–they’ll believe anything. Just like all those illiterate Afghans.
[sub]yeah right[/sub]
But I love the idea of a digital Osama Bin Laden sitting in a Starbucks with a coffee granita in front of him. Vote here for your female of choice to be seated on his right:
You might fool a couple of Bin Laden’s enemies, but you’ll probably never fool his followers. If they were shown a REAL tape of Bin Laden doing these things, they’d assume it was a fake, so rotsa ruck.
Still , I like the way you think. Would you like to come work for me? I can’t tell you where.
"You’re dead. You’re all dead. – Frank Sinatra
