Kat is a blogger and a Denizen or infowarrior in Virtual Warlord John Donovan’s castle garrison who has just posted a magnum opus that may well be to Pinch Sulzberger what the Declaration of Independence was to King George III. Future students of this period will recognize this piece as a key treatise in the narrative of the pajamahadeen .
It was only those of us who disconnected from the “Matrix” of the mass media who knew the reality on the ground did not match the “reality” perpetrated by the media.
We few, we happy few, we band of blogs, having looked beyond the Matrix, discussed strategy and pointed to successes long before the media ever knew who Petraeus was or anything about the new COIN manual that incorporated ideas written by Kilcullen and discussed at length on the blogs.
Victory, they say, has many fathers and defeat is an orphan. Some of us refused to abandon it.
Some of us did indeed refuse to accept defeat. Some of that was plain old Jacksonian stubborness, and some of it was faith. We kept the faith with our nation’s warriors. We knew deep down that what we were being told was not the whole story. And we believed that our nation was a force for good in this world, and that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines sent forth to break militant Islamicists of their homocidal habits were the best human beings this Republic had to offer .
Some may believe that it is too early to say that we have won in Iraq. Others will claim that it is only hindsight that allows anyone to believe that they knew all along we would win. But it wasn’t hindsight that had bloggers across the world looking for victory. It was and is a belief that victory should be and could be the only end.
We almost lost the war. Not on the battle field, but right here at home. As General Lynch recently said, the reason people thought it was being lost and now appears to be miraculously won? The media, with its central editorial boards “shaping American opinion” told everyone it was so. And, at least half of the American population was unaware because they had no idea they were being sold a bill of goods. They didn’t disconnect from the “Matrix”.
We have all been the victims of a massive psychological operation. Even those of us who resisted. Our faith in our armed forces remains unshaken, but our faith in government, media, academia, elites, and many of our fellow citizens has plummeted. Many of us no longer look to government for solutions. Some of us are empowering ourselves.
The reason that you are failing, the reason the stock in your companies continues to dwindle, the reason that you missed the true story of Iraq in lieu of “the narrative”, the reason that a sitting president invited bloggers to the White House, however limited in its actual journalistic moments that you claim as “real” journalism, is because you and your kind became “the Matrix”; alternate reality created by you and others like you. You are no longer independent. You are no longer individuals seeking “the truth”.
You started believing your own press that you were the people that “protected” the people from the power of the government. You were ‘objective” you said. You told the “truth” you said. All the while you abdicated your self-appointed responsibilities to foreign unknown, ideologically and ethically challenged stringers rarely ever telling your viewers and readers where it came from. You claim you don’t bow down to powers, you bring them down, while all along central editorial boards told you what to write, what was acceptable. They stacked the deck with people like you to “shape the narrative” and “shape public opinion”.
You’re no longer independent, but a slave to the Matrix. What can you do but complain like petty demagogues who fear their throne has been threatened and belittle others who dare to disconnect from the Matrix?
We are at war. Several wars. The outcome of all of them depends on control of the key terrain, the battle space between the ears of the American voter. And for a whole lot of reasons explained elsewhere on this blog, this key terrain has been left undefended. Will and morale are essential elements of national power that must be defended, if not by Regulars, than by us.
Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group 
I appreciate the link and the links around to other sites. I am going to be reviewing some more on the media and information war. I recall our many conversations at other sites and will be looking at your site for some thoughts.
I might point you to this piece by Matt Sanchez:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57825
I found the quote of the day over at Chicago Boyz:
When you are having difficulty drawing even in a global popularity contest with a crowd of bearded fanatics who put beheading videos on the internet, it’s time to admit there’s a problem.
More here.
You started believing your own press that you were the people that “protected” the people from the power of the government.
We, the people, must never again trust the media elite to tell us the truth. I wonder how this war might have gone without the internet? My belief is that it WOULD have been another Vietnam, because the media would have ensured that outcome. To the bloggers – especially those in theater – you cannot know how valuable you have been. Thank you so much.
StarCMC – you are exactly right. If there had not been a counter to the incessant drumbeat of failure and war crimes bleated about in the media, we would all be wearing burkas and worshiping Allah. Imagine if blogs had been around during the Vietnam War… What would our world look like if we had taken back the media then?
Cannoneer – great post. Thanks for alerting me to it. I am at your beck and call sir!
StarCMC…
Absolutely agree.
And it continues…the world already might have been different without the Swift Boaters, and the Rathergate situation…it doesn’t help to correct falsehoods sometime in the future – it matters _now_! And that’s what bloggers do best!
Without the blogs, Kerry might have won. And where would we be now?
This shows some of the intended objectives achieved through enemy operations
The media only feeds on shark infested waters because the sharks were lured to those waters by actions and consequences. Without a uniform or cohesive organized effort to take bits of news and draw in attention, you get ineffective operations. Ineffective operations characterize our side of the effort in propaganda warfare far more than it does the other side’s alliance.
Conventional military operations rely primarily on brute force and the exisgencies of military power, with little emphasis on psychological components. Wars involving propaganda is not chiefly decided by who has the most brute force, but rather it is decided upon by who has the most cunning and skill in bypassing strong points while exploiting weak points. By using your enemy’s own force structure against him, you can defeat in battle even someone with as much hard military power as the US President. Thus, the tactics applied by less powerful media and political groups against the more powerful US President can also be used by groups less powerful than the media and political groups against the more powerful political/propaganda apparatus.
Great link, ymarsakar, thanks. I tried posting that over at Free Republic, went through the whole rigamarole, hit preview and got Source is Blocked, article not posted
sweetness-light.com not welcome on FR..
Robin and Star can attest to how far FR has fallen in the last 3 years. Taking down Dan Rather the first time was their high point, and they’ve been going down hill ever since. Which is a damn shame because that forum had so much potential.
kat, it’s a long, hard slog but we’re finally gaining some traction. You’re an inspiration to me to keep on keeping on even when nobody is reading me.
We need to get a Tier 1 radio talker to read your blog to the nation, and we make that happen by linking our asses off until we get instalanched.
Wolf, I read that. If America is so unpopular why do we have so many foreigners coming here? The Bush Administration is opposed by most of the people other administrations could tap for strategic communications expertise. Without a formal declaration of war and an Office of War Information they just limp along as best they can. That’s why they need help from folks like us.
I like the idea of a Fourth Generation Warfare quote of the day.
Star & Robin, great to see you over here. Star, how would you like to start blogging? Cannonette is going to be needing some help with this one soon.
Robin, you are a heroine for keeping up with the Haditha story. They’re trying the same thing on Blackwater now.
suek, how would you like to be a blogger? I expect to be offline for awhile and Cannonette, bless her heart, only blogs when I call her up and whine.
Cannoneer…I’m flattered you would ask, but don’t feel qualified. I’d vouch for Ymar, though. He already has a blog, one that is very worthwhile, very balanced, very well thought through. He’s a bit hung up on the Japanese traditional stuff, but other than that, he’s a very good one to have on your side! May I suggest you tender your invitation to him?
On the S&L thing…he posted over there about it several months ago…apparently it’s a personal issue. They apparently worked together on FP, and somehow the association broke up, and Steve started his own blog. Somehow in the entire transaction, there were some very hard feelings generated on the part of those who run FP. I think S&L has info within his postings if you do a search – although it might have been in the comments rather than in the postings themselves. I can’t say I’m familiar enough with the names of individuals to really know what happened – just that the S&L block on FP is the result of personal relationship breakup.
Robin, you are a heroine for keeping up with the Haditha story. They’re trying the same thing on Blackwater now.
There were two similar scenarios that looked too close for statistical coincidence. One was Haditha, which you mentioned, and the other one was the first Marine Force Recon unit to be sent to Afghanistan as part of SOCOM. All three were accused of “death blossom”ing local civilians. Two were Marine units and another was former SF Blackwater civilian security contractors.
These types of incidents usually happen with green, inexperienced, or undisciplined units. The Marines by that time in Iraq and Afghanistan, could not be said to be either green, inexperienced, or undisciplined. The military correlational factors I used for predicting such scenarios just didn’t meld with the stated narrative story.
In the case of Afghanistan, Karzai was on our side yet the operation was still effective enough to equivalently neutralize a Marine Force Recon unit from the field. What could not be done by ambush tactics, IEDs, human shields, or Pakistani fighters was done by political/media maneuvering. Cleverness and the ability to exploit the enemy’s gaps in their armour counted in higher total efficacy than sheer brute strength attacks.
Dan Rather is a good example of this happening totally based upon media incompetence. Dan Rather blew open his own armor. No amount of public criticism or even administration criticism (that could have feasibly been created) could dampen his 60 Minutes propaganda apparatus or the harm it did to the US. Yet, one clever stroke of the pen or the copy and paste machine and he was effectively neutralized. An organized attack might have even crippled 60 Minutes itself as a credible program.
So the tactic is sound. By using Haditha esque techniques to purposefully organize those kinds of operations, you can remove entire military units from the board or otherwise hamper their operational ROE freedoms. At the least you can pull entire squads and individuals through the legal system to increase the psychological damage upon the military and civilian sphere of the US forces without having to mount any aggressive active force attacks afterwards.
Without knowing the players in the game, their motivations, and how much part they play in such incidents, it is hard to counter them. However, we do know what tools are necessary for the success of such things. One, you need a guillible legal system that would rather throw one of their soldiers under the bus than to rigorously follow the justice/advocacy system centered around two advocates (lawyers). Instead of one lawyer against another lawyer, we have the entire army/military against one defendant’s lawyer. Without the military being able to investigate and being willing to throw their own under the bus to avoid embarassment/political fallout, such enemy psychological operations would be far less effective. Second, there has to be a political plan that could conceivably put pressure on the military. Domestic propaganda clips showing Haditha massacre and Murtha’s divine proclamations help grease the wheels and place the necessary assets into the right place and time.
Number 1 is a military and Presidential internal matter. We have little chance of affecting such inner circle decisions. Bush and Rumsfield both would not interfere in investigations, therefore allowing people like Scott Fitzgerald and other investigators, military or civilian, to run wild or to run simply under the guidance of inimical forces. Call it misguided if you wish. Number 2, however, is far more vulnerable to sabotage and destruction. Since domestic propaganda is spread by politicians and media personas. Such people are vulnerable to disinformation, traps, and embarassment much as what happened to Rather. Embarassing politicians is something very popular right now, especially amongst the blogs, either side. Yet the decency of people such as blackfive almost guarantees that new Murthas will arise and be given respect until it is proven that they don’t deserve it. While the other side will try to personally destroy any hint of a strong oppositional figure such as Matt Sanchez.
The way I see things, we are limited much as what Bush is limited by. Our own conscience and respect for the Constitution or strangers we don’t know. Pre-emptive strike requires that you select a target that may be the right one and strike at it in the hopes that sometime in the future, the unknown will become a positive known. Yet there are people like Murtha and Dan Rather and Mapes and Eason Jordan and a whole slew of folks that are not decent and should receive any restraint on the part of decent folks. That is what Bush differs on, since Bush believes that even indecent folks should be treated with decency and honor. That those without honor should be treated with the utmost of honor and that those with the utmost of honor should be treated to Lawyering cause the President is bound by his conscience not to interfere. The game is rigged in some respects.
Since we can’t choose when or where we enter the game, it often does seem rigged.
My favorite counter to the media is to provide them with disinformation. Give them what they want. Fabricate atrocities and then have the “dead people” testify that Americans are guilible. We cannot equal enemy propaganda if we avoid all the common tricks in the grab bag. Yet the most effective operations require organization, preferably Presidential organization, but that’s a wish that just isn’t going to come true in the next couple of years.
Thank you for your appreciative words, suek. I often write about Japanese culture probably because of all the anime I watch. Besides, it was a nice beginning help on learning about Islam. Japan’s template in WWII in connection with American honor helped me improve my models from which I use to figure out connections.
Most of the time I don’t come up with original analysis so much as I tie in what people are already saying. The few original analysis I did based upon scenarios I never saw before, was the Southern Border Scenario. Link
The gang problem in LA, the border problem down south, the illegal immigration problem, and the drug problem are all weaknesses in our armour. Combined together and something can be done to create a mortal wound for America. Right now our enemies are too busy doing their own thing in the Middle East and Europe. Which is a good thing, for the damage they can do there is far less than what they can do here once they realize what can be exploited. Jimbo also wrote, from blackfive, about the basic inherent vulnerabilities in a free society such as ours. Schools, trains, buses, etc.
That’s why I often read and comment, since it allows me to see what people are talking about and perhaps see some connections between otherwise unrelated situations.
The key is religion, morality and the judges. Any society can tolerate some number of non-religious, amoral people, but imo, no society can long exist without a common religious and moral base. By removing religion from our society – through selection of judges who impose their way of “how things _should_ be” instead of how the law is written, we have gone down a road which means that judges effectively write laws. The result is that the laws that are written by legislators are not being upheld, and the underlying morality of this society is being ignored. The result is that laws are not enforced. We have a lawless society, in effect. Those who have a religious, moral base continue in their actions in a more or less orderly way. Those without a religious, moral base – the wolves – continue to prey on the sheep.
We need to affect the selection of judges. Selecting judges who uphold the enforcement of laws means that much of the damage done by lawbreakers could be shut down. If you have judges who continually say that there’s some justification for breaking the law, then laws have no purpose. You know…outlaw guns and only outlaws have guns … that sort of thing.
The NYT, for example should have been prosecuted for publishing Secret information. They were not – why? Because the courts probably wouldn’t enforce it – freedom of the press etc. Yet Libby was – why? We all know.
Judges are a critical part of this equation – how do we affect the tenure of those who are presently sitting, and how do we bring about change in the selection of those are yet to be chosen?
50 years ago, I believe our society would have had the strength to resist much of the 5th column. Today we don’t have that strength…why? I believe the answer is in our courts.
PS: I know you enjoy anime…you are persuasive enough to have convinced me that there might be some value to them – that I view them too simplistically – but to be honest, I just can’t get past the fact that they’re cartoons. I understand that they’re representative speakers for telling a story…but they’re still cartoons! I understand that actors are – to a certain extent – no different…but the use of human actors instead of cartoons makes a difference to me. Just a personal failing, I guess!
PS: I know you enjoy anime…you are persuasive enough to have convinced me that there might be some value to them – that I view them too simplistically – but to be honest, I just can’t get past the fact that they’re cartoons. I understand that they’re representative speakers for telling a story…but they’re still cartoons! I understand that actors are – to a certain extent – no different…but the use of human actors instead of cartoons makes a difference to me. Just a personal failing, I guess!
My friend Phileosophos has the same reaction that you do, Suek.
Also the English dubbed versions of anime usually change the audio quality by too much, not to mention the lip synching issue. There’s a noticeable difference when a male protagonist speaks Japanese and the male tenor voices America uses for English.
Naruto’s English first episode was very annoying audio wise, even though I had seen the same exact episode numerous times in the Japanese subtitled with English format. The seiyu for Naruto in Japan is a woman while for Naruto English speaking,
“Johnny Yong Bosch will play Naruto. You may know him as Adam from the older Power Rangers show, or as Vash from Trigun, Kaneda from Akira, etc. ”
In some respects, Japan has many selections of which voice actor to get while in America, one voice actor may do multiple parts. There’s a certain atmosphere lacking in the American limitation.
The NYT, for example should have been prosecuted for publishing Secret information. They were not – why? Because the courts probably wouldn’t enforce it
Look to the Left, such as Fitzgerald, to show the way. He may not have been able to charge the reporter but he did jail her. It’s hard to get a grasp of the personalities involved simply from the news reports, but we do know now that Fitzgerald was an inquisitor via Leftist connections and so would use Leftist harassment tactics as far as he was able to. He was not the President however, so he could only hold people for so long in jail. The President, as you might recall with Lincoln, can put a lot of people in jail indefinitely. If the courts won’t enforce current policy and tradition, then the Executive Branch has to otherwise why even have an Executive Branch?
Josh Wheldon, creator of Firefly, mentioned that he wanted to create a character driven story. I prefer such stories precisely because it is based upon people. Perhaps it is because I’ve learned too much about human nature, politics, social dynamics, and the history of human conflict to ever be satisfied with cookie cutter common roles, even for entertainment.
>>If the courts won’t enforce current policy and tradition, then the Executive Branch has to otherwise why even have an Executive Branch?>>
Indeed. But then, if challenged by members of Congress, it goes back into the courts. Between the two of them, it’s apparent that their goal is to bring the Executive Branch to heel. They want a well-trained puppy. Congress in particular.
I’m waiting to see what’s going to happen on Fitzgerald – Justice should be pushing on the illegal appointment/no accountability. Will they? probably not, but we’ll see. I don’t think that Gonzales had the aggressiveness needed – we’ll see if the new AG does – if there’s enough time left. I don’t really expect it…but it’s an interesting facet.
Congress with the Judiciary should have enough power to constrain, in part, the Executive Branch. That is part of the stabilization system of 3 branches.
However, there are many ways the Executive Branch can avoid or ignore Supreme Court rulings. Remember Andrew Jackson in which he ignored a Supreme Court order concerning the Cherokee and other Ameri Indians in Georgia? Andrew Jackson could not enforce the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Cherokees to stay, because that would mean federal protection from the Georgian settlers and militias who would attack the Ameri Indians and wipe them out without federal DC units. Jackson didn’t have the political power to tell the people that elected him to piss off and he didn’t have the military power to cover that much territory. So Jackson not only ignored the Supreme Court rulings, but he made his own policy, an Executive Order (or just like one).
Both Congress and the Justices rely upon the Executive Branch to enforce the laws that Congress writes and upholds the rulings that the Justices decide. Without the military, police, and legal power backing the Executive Branch, Congress and the Supreme Court justices couldn’t do jack. Congress couldn’t collect taxes because the police and IRS would be ordered NOT to collect them. And if Congress or judges threatened arrest, the President returns with martial law and unlimited pardons. The tools and scenarios are there, even though the system has been stable enough to only warrant some singular uses of such power at a time, rather than all of such at one time and place.
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