Robert Satloff may be surprised to discover that he is about six years behind the power curve with this idea. And that the plan is not merely theoretical.
We have -- from time to time -- referred here to various aspects of the program as being part of the primary post-9/11 U.S. Strategic PSYOP.
From today's Washington Post, How to Win The War Of Ideas:
Rather than expend effort on winning Muslim friendship for America, our engagement with Muslim publics -- what we call "public diplomacy" -- should focus on identifying, nurturing and supporting anti-Islamist Muslims, from secular liberals to pious believers, who fear the encroachment of radical Islamists and are willing to make a stand.
This strategy would involve overt and covert ways to assist anti-Islamist political parties, nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, media outlets, women's groups, educational institutions and youth movements as they compete with the radicals. It calls for marshaling government resources -- our embassies, aid bureaucracies, international broadcasting units and intelligence agencies, as well as our commercial, educational and civic relationships -- to give anti-Islamists the moral, political, financial, technological and material support they need. A key feature of this includes empowering local Muslims with information about the salafist or Wahhabi connections of their radical Islamist adversaries.
Our goal is to help anti-Islamists prevent extremists from controlling public space, public speech and public behavior.
2 comments:
Well, you can hardly blame the guy for not having a foggy clue about any post-9/11 US PSYOP. Because, for all the effort that appears to have been spent on it, it sure as hell hasn't done much, being counterveiled and far out-gunned (literally) as it has been by that other badly run OP, The War on Terror. Any hearts and minds "strategy" has been so utterly derailed by the guns and ammo strategy as too appear non-existent.
Hi thebhc
;), Yepp.
...and as we previously penned (post:Another tactful hint), and the author of the Joint Force Quarterly piece is clearly clueless about what is arguably the most effective U.S. PSYOP ever, the series of programs that are collectively termed "Cultural Infiltration." Through these ops, we have successfully influenced (and continue to influence) countless millions of people to admire the United States and desire to emulate our way of living.
The hearts and minds of the Muslim world will be captured or forfeited by the legacy of U.S. kinetic actions, and whether our choices are seen there as justifiable. Not by risible reasoning that they "hate our freedoms" more than they hate us for killing their people.
Post a Comment