Propaganda and Terrorism

The teacher of my ninth grade civics class was most enthusiastic about the topic of propaganda. He detailed all of the objectives, elements, and techniques of propaganda, illustrating them profusely with examples from the World War II era. I thought of him today when a friend sent me an email with the following link:
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamic-mein-kampf/

It illustrates the kind of propaganda we could be using in the war on terrorism, but are not. I don't remember all of the elements of propaganda, but most of them are in the video--the kernel of truth, the exaggeration, appeal to emotions, stereotyping, etc. It also illustrates the kind of propaganda that the Muslim extremists are using to bolster their cause.

With or without heavy-handed propaganda, however, I am continually disturbed by how much energy some public figures in our country are expending to criticize President Bush for their political gain, and how little effort they expend to attack the terrorist enemies for our safety and security.

With that in mind, I'll offer a couple more links to balance the scale a little bit: http://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/

Now, in the political spectrum David Horowitz is a little far to the right for my taste, but the sites are still worth a read. Even the strongest propaganda contains kernels of truth, and those are worth looking for.

Now, back to the Islamic Mein Kampf:
The comparison to Hitler’s Germany is frighteningly valid, even without the emotional tone of the propaganda piece. The Islamist propaganda machine is a virtual duplicate of the machines established in Germany and Japan. The Muslim radicals are exactly what they claim the U.S. is, and what Hitler was—committed to world domination. The rest of the Muslim people are just like the citizens of Germany were—afraid, or unwilling to stand in opposition to the radicals. Similarly, the comparison of the modern western countries to pre-WW2 Europe is also frightening. Europe is echoing Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. The loudest voices in U.S. today are repeating the pre-WW2 isolationist and pacifist idealism.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, our government realized that the propaganda attacks had been converted to physical attacks, and it quickly responded with both physical force and propaganda of our own. The terrorists made dozens of smaller attacks around the world, but it took the 9/11/01 attack on the world trade center to awaken our interest.

Since 9/11, Pres. Bush has made, and refused to acknowledge, mistakes that may eventually lead us to a greater disaster:
1. Bush should have completed the mission to stabilize Afghanistan, including eradication of the Taliban and the capture of Bin Laden, before he took on a second target.
2. If, in fact, Bin Laden and his thugs did go into Pakistan, Bush should have given Mushareff a deadline by which to bring us Bin Laden’s head, or authorize us to do it for him. And, no Taliban whatever should have received safe harbor in Pakistan.
3. Bush should have implemented an internal propaganda campaign similar to the one implemented by FDR, to gain the nation’s continuing support for war against Islamic terrorism. Remember? We were all squashing tin cans and saving bacon fat for the war effort. Even Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny were fighting Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito in their cartoons. We are too “politically correct” to do that today. There is no sense of urgency. The president has lost his support.
4. Bush picked the wrong second target, probably because of poor and misleading intellegence. Iran was and is more of a threat than Iraq, as are Hamas and Hezbollah.
5. In Iraq, Bush repeated his Bin Laden error by not neutralizing Muqtada al Sadr and his thugs immediately.

The Islamic extremists will negotiate only to weaken us and strengthen their own position. They may offer compromise to the infidel, but to their own soldiers they preach only annihilation of the infidel.

Where is our sense of urgency?