tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post116540447853957585..comments2024-02-14T11:00:03.180-05:00Comments on Tom McLaughlin: Who Are Those Guys?Tom McLaughlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07691546351143209227noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-1165669958451019212006-12-09T08:12:00.000-05:002006-12-09T08:12:00.000-05:00Tom,Call it preaching to the (m)asses, but if you ...Tom,<BR/><BR/>Call it preaching to the (m)asses, but if you could keep passing out those nuggets (I didn't know of Mr Capra's efforts! I only knew him for Mr Deeds.., It Happened..., It's A Wonderful..., etc) for newbies like your truly, we'd really appreciate it. Learning history this way is so much more fun and personal.<BR/><BR/>SrirajAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-1165532824975845352006-12-07T18:07:00.000-05:002006-12-07T18:07:00.000-05:00Sriraj,The US broadcasted propaganda across easter...Sriraj,<BR/><BR/>The US broadcasted propaganda across eastern Europe and into the Soviet Union continuously in several languages through something called “Radio Free Europe.” In turn, the Soviets built jamming stations to try and block the signals. The Soviets used propaganda extensively within their territory, and if some citizens were stubborn the Party would “purge” those who were not “politically correct.” That’s where the term originated. Those not amenable to change through propaganda were imprisoned in gulags, killed outright, or if they were too famous in the outside world to exterminate they were committed to “insane asylums” to keep them quiet and isolated. The communist Chinese did similar things when they came to power after WWII. The worst of it was during Mao’s “cultural revolution” in which he turned the society upside-down in an attempt to exterminate “bourgeois” attitudes in the population. The Soviets also used propaganda in countries they targeted in Africa, South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. <BR/><BR/>We could use more propaganda aimed at Muslims around the world, but especially in the Middle East. According to Americans with Arab background, what we’re doing in Iraq is ham-handed and ineffective. We have to expect the other side to use propaganda and they’re much more effective than we are. With their petrodollars, the Saudis fund madrassas, or Islamic schools almost everywhere including Europe and in the United States. They pound a Wahhabi message continuously and effectively to the point where Arab expatriates in Europe tend to be even more radical than the average Arab in the Middle East.<BR/><BR/>Bush is famously inarticulate, but could have designated someone, some agency, to get the message out about what we’re facing. It’s not a war on terror; it’s a war on radical Islam. He only just started with the Islamofascist line, but it’s been too little, too late.<BR/><BR/>A recent film called “Obsession” is making the rounds and I recommend it. It used the old Frank Capra WWII model of using our enemy’s own words against them. Just as Capra used Nazi propaganda films against Nazis, “Obsession” shows clip after clip of imams exhorting their people to kill Americans and Jews and clips of how they train little kids to be suicide bombers. It’s excellent. We need to do much more of it.<BR/><BR/>“60 Minutes” showed an Arab/American FBI agent recently who is exasperated about the appalling lack of knowledge of our enemy in the senior FBI officials running our anti-terror operations here and abroad. They didn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, for example. We have a lot of work to do here and that’s where I’d start - here in America. Most people don’t have any idea what we’re up against. Jewish groups on campuses are trying to show “Obsession” but are being blocked by Muslim student groups. “Obsession” is powerful. Check it out at http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/Tom McLaughlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691546351143209227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-1165514575509632352006-12-07T13:02:00.000-05:002006-12-07T13:02:00.000-05:00Tom,I am sketchy on this, but I hope you'll shed s...Tom,<BR/><BR/>I am sketchy on this, but I hope you'll shed some light. Didn't the govts on this side of the Iron Curtain engage in propaganda via radio, with the help of the Catholic Church and anti-communist activists, that eventually lead to the breakdown of communism? Wasn't a similar operation(s) carried out with the help of the Resistance in WW2?<BR/><BR/>To your knowledge, are we taking this fight today, to the minds of like-minded people in the Middle East, similar to WW2 and the Cold War? I don't recall having seen/read anything in the mainstream media that says that we are trying to communicate the values of liberty, equality, freedom and opportunity to the masses in the Middle East. A prime eg is Iran. We have a huge chunk of that nation under the age of 30, that looks upto the West and the US, in particular. They like our values and way of life. We have to reach across and foment that suppressed sentiment, in Iran. Could we send radio signals acros from our military bases in Iraq and on the Gulf, and engage in propaganada?<BR/><BR/>On the flip side of it, Al Qaeda has done an excellent job in communicating their message to their base, to the so-called moderate Muslims (what a misnomer!), in terrifying western masses (and manybe influencing elections, like in Spain and the US?). They even had the gall to start an Al Jazeera in English and broadcast their propaganada. We should be the ones doing this, not they.<BR/><BR/>SrirajAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com