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March 24, 2003
Winning hearts and minds
On the NewsHour, Aziz Al-Taee, chairman of the Iraqi-American Council and a couple other commentators suggested that we should knock out Iraqi TV and radio and run our own broadcasts in their place. Al-Taee further suggested that Iraqi exiles should do the broadcasts because the Iraqis have been constantly bombarded with Saddam's propaganda, and thus they don't know anything good about and don't trust the Coalition. No transcript is available yet, but real audio is here. (The exiles part might be a bit self-serving, but getting Saddam off the air seems to make a lot of sense). Comments
Why is Saddam TV still on the air? Any ideas? I understand not shutting down the power and water but you don't need TV to live. Why didn't we take it out the first day? Posted by: brian at March 24, 2003 10:18 PMI posted something similar over at the op-ed version of this site (see the post at 4:37 (http://www.command-post.org/oped/)). I agree with you . . . we need to get some more of these folks on our side. Posted by: Patrick Campos at March 24, 2003 10:21 PMThe reason we're leaving Iraqi TV alone is because of the unintended intel information the Iraqis let through in their broadcasts... Kind of like how we determined the geographic area of one of Osama's hideouts from where it was filmed. A US geologist had studied specific types of rock formations, and from that was able to pinpoint the region. Stuff like that helps. The end result is that it's more of a help than a hinderance. Posted by: Jake Blues at March 24, 2003 10:32 PMThe transcript is here: "COL. W. PATRICK LANG: Yeah, I'm an intelligence person and I would agree with John that the time is passed at which the information value of listening to what they said is no longer worth the cost you're paying in allowing Saddam to communicate with all these people and continuing to influence them with his words." Posted by: Lonewacko at March 24, 2003 11:22 PM4:37 OpEd is along the same lines as what I'm thinking, with one major difference: I think Bush et al. put too much emphasis on military, force, etc. and are tone-deaf to PR, etc. Dropping leaflets is fine, but that seems to be as far as they're willing to go. Posted by: Lonewacko at March 24, 2003 11:46 PMNot only that but I've seen hints between the lines that the Allies think they'll a)really need that network, and b)have possession of it Real Soon Now. :) Lonewhacko: you are not the only one who has remarked on the PR-deficiency of Bush, et. al. Check out Tim Cavanaugh's article here http://www.reason.com/hod/tc032403.shtml at Reason Online. Post a comment
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