Rumsfeld yesterday called for the military and other government agencies to mount a far more aggressive, swift and nontraditional information campaign to counter the messages of extremist and terrorist groups in the world media.
Rumsfeld criticized the absence of a “strategic communications framework” for fighting terrorism. He also lashed out at the U.S. media, which he blamed for effectively halting recent U.S. military initiatives in the information realm — such as paying to place articles in Iraqi newspapers — through an “explosion of critical press stories.”
“Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today’s media age, but for the most part we, our country, our government, has not.” He said that while the al Qaeda terrorist network and other “extremist” movements “have successfully . . . poisoned the Muslim public’s view of the West, we in the government have barely even begun to compete in reaching their audiences.”
“Our enemies are operating 24/7 across every time zone. That is an unacceptably dangerous deficiency.”
To remedy this, he called for increased communications training for military public affairs officials. He also called for creating 24-hour media operations centers and “multifaceted media campaigns” using the Internet, blogs and satellite television that “will result in much less reliance on the traditional print press.”
While I agree with the cause, I doubt the intentions.
You see, U.S. administration always said that “if you are not with us, you are against us.” So, anyone and everyone who do not agree with Bush administration is ultimately a terrorist?! Is this how the U.S. administration refers to us? I hope not, but no one can tell where they place us.
On the other hand, let’s look at what he said more closely. He claims that “Al Qaeda terrorist network and other “extremist” movements have successfully poisoned the Muslims publics’ view of the West.” The question is how?
Terrorist networks and movements do not have satellite TV stations like the U.S. have, not they have known websites/blogs that Muslim (or non-Muslim) can follow. Even if they have, why are they still up? They can be closed in minutes. And to start a new one and get the crowed again to find it and follow it, etc… seams to be worthless effort.
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