Give Islamist Terrorists What They Fear Most-- Humiliation

It's been said on the blogosphere before, but this is a good print bit about it:

Osama bin Laden says he doesn't fear dying. He says he fears being humiliated. So let's give it to him.

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What would happen if we ridiculed the terrorists instead? Would young people still flock to become "fighters" and suicide bombers? Would they still leave on their doomed missions with tearful support from their mothers, fathers, grandparents and the girls at home, blessed by a cleric who justifies murder as a noble sacrifice in Allah's name?

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The U.S. military may be developing its war-fighting skills to do just that. Recently it shattered the seemingly invincible persona of al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose beheadings and bombings have terrorized Iraq and the world, by pairing his latest video release with captured raw outtakes.

The outtakes showed al-Zarqawi not as a fearsome fighter but as a confused, bumbling fat boy in American sneakers and a black ninja costume who couldn't figure out how to operate a simple machine gun. (And even if it wasn't simple, there was no way to know that from the outtakes.) For the first time ever, the world saw al-Zarqawi's weak side: a pudgy, vulnerable, even contemptible creature who can't fight like a real warrior.

Of course, it doesn't help the cause when the New York Times and CNN immediately spring to this absurd fat-boy's defense, talking up the incredible complexity of the basic American squad automatic weapon.

To most Americans, ridiculing terrorists might seem trivial, even sophomoric, as a weapon of war. But dictators and terrorists, being unable to function in the free market of ideas, need propagandists to control (not merely spin) their public images. They require obedience or acquiescence - a fear factor that cannot long coexist with put-downs and snickering. (That's why, six months after taking power in 1959, Fidel Castro had signs placed in official buildings that read "Counterrevolutionary jokes forbidden here." One of the first publications he shutdown was Zig Zag, a humor magazine.)

Pride, honor and shame are profound in much of Arab Muslim culture. The al-Zarqawi video was devastating. That's why Iraqi television and other moderate Arab media gave it plenty of play.

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In a January 2006 recorded message, bin Laden signed off by saying: "I swear not to die but a free man even if I taste the bitterness of death. I fear to be humiliated or betrayed."

If he's not afraid to die, let's pour on the humiliation.

As long as the terrorists can make themselves look like fearsome winners - and as long as we inadvertently help them - they will always recruit followers. But nobody likes to follow a loser.

Except CNN and the New York Times, of course.

It really is amazing. The writer notes that the media (including Hollywood) eagerly enlisted in mocking America's enemies during WWII.

Flash forward to today, when two of our most powerful news organizations play PR flack for a loathesome killer, and Hollywood churns out movie after movie "contextualizing" and apologizing mass-murder.

As the man says: They're not anti-war. They're just on the other side.

Speaking of being on the other side... Jack Murtha vows he will not sleep until the Jihadists get as much political benefit as possible from the alleged massacre of civilians by Marines in Iraq.

Then, having a senior moment, I guess, he notes we intentionally killed a lot of civilians in World War II, and says:

"In World War II we dropped bombs on all these different countries," he told Colmes. "We killed civilians. In wartime - this is wartime. You're not sitting in an office back here. This is wartime."

Compare his "This is wartime" statement about firebombing Dresden to his vow to not "let them cover... up" the alleged massacre in Iraq.

Seems that "This is wartime" doesn't apply when a Republican is President.

More of this c**k**ker's ruminations here. Including his parroting of the claim that Democrats won't seek to impeach Bush should they take Congress.

They have to impeach Bush if they take power. That's step one in their plan to capture Bin Ladin, defeat the terrorists, stop the Iran and NK nuke programs, and lower the price of gas to two bits per gallon.

(Then comes step two, and then comes step three: Profit.)

posted by Ace at 01:57 PM

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