Iraq: Brain-washed-hate-filled propaganda everywhere
iraqwar/AP: The U.S. military is mounting a counteroffensive in a war of words with Iraq's insurgents, firing off accusations of murdering children, kidnapping, torturing, brainwashing and planning to use chemical weapons.
For much of the 2 1/2 years since the United States invaded Iraq, Bush administration officials have complained of the insurgents' nimble use of propaganda to intimidate ordinary Iraqis and portray the Americans as anti-Islamic occupiers. U.S. officials have tried to counter the charges and graded their success as modest at best.
It's not just the Iraqi population that U.S. officials want to convince. They also are trying to get the message through to the American public that U.S. forces are winning, and the insurgents pose a threat that goes well beyond Iraqi borders.
Whether by plan or happenstance, the latest anti-American charge - that U.S. troops used poison gas during fighting in the northern city of Tal Afar - is being answered with harsh words from U.S. commanders.
On Tuesday, Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the main U.S. force in the Tal Afar fight, unleashed a verbal barrage.
"The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine," he told reporters at the Pentagon.
"Not only were they targeting civilians, brutally murdering them, torturing them, but they were also kidnapping the youth of the city and brainwashing them and trying to turn them into hate-filled murderers," he added.
On Wednesday, Col. Robert B. Brown made similar claims about the insurgents in the portion of northern Iraq his Stryker brigade combat team has been operating in for the past 11 months, including the city of Mosul.
"It's the most evil enemy we've ever faced," he said. Twice he mentioned "brainwashing," noting that he was not sure that's an official term. "That's what it seems like to me," he said, when the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, recruits young foreign fighters and sends them on suicide missions.
He cited a captured Libyan who was "clearly brainwashed" to think he was coming to Iraq to fight American crusaders against the Muslim religion. "He got here, he saw that it was not correct," Brown said. "They told him that he was going to be a suicide martyr." When captured, the Libyan was "very happy to talk to us." Read more
db: If a belief that 'coming to Iraq to fight American crusaders' amounts to 'brainwashing' then those who thought they were 'coming to Iraq to fight the perpetrators of 9/11' must equally be regarded as mindless zombies.
For much of the 2 1/2 years since the United States invaded Iraq, Bush administration officials have complained of the insurgents' nimble use of propaganda to intimidate ordinary Iraqis and portray the Americans as anti-Islamic occupiers. U.S. officials have tried to counter the charges and graded their success as modest at best.
It's not just the Iraqi population that U.S. officials want to convince. They also are trying to get the message through to the American public that U.S. forces are winning, and the insurgents pose a threat that goes well beyond Iraqi borders.
Whether by plan or happenstance, the latest anti-American charge - that U.S. troops used poison gas during fighting in the northern city of Tal Afar - is being answered with harsh words from U.S. commanders.
On Tuesday, Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the main U.S. force in the Tal Afar fight, unleashed a verbal barrage.
"The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine," he told reporters at the Pentagon.
"Not only were they targeting civilians, brutally murdering them, torturing them, but they were also kidnapping the youth of the city and brainwashing them and trying to turn them into hate-filled murderers," he added.
On Wednesday, Col. Robert B. Brown made similar claims about the insurgents in the portion of northern Iraq his Stryker brigade combat team has been operating in for the past 11 months, including the city of Mosul.
"It's the most evil enemy we've ever faced," he said. Twice he mentioned "brainwashing," noting that he was not sure that's an official term. "That's what it seems like to me," he said, when the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, recruits young foreign fighters and sends them on suicide missions.
He cited a captured Libyan who was "clearly brainwashed" to think he was coming to Iraq to fight American crusaders against the Muslim religion. "He got here, he saw that it was not correct," Brown said. "They told him that he was going to be a suicide martyr." When captured, the Libyan was "very happy to talk to us." Read more
db: If a belief that 'coming to Iraq to fight American crusaders' amounts to 'brainwashing' then those who thought they were 'coming to Iraq to fight the perpetrators of 9/11' must equally be regarded as mindless zombies.
posted by exoplanet at 11:00 AM
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