Article

2004-05-31 Iraq-Jordan

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by tipper 2004-05-31 19:39|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 this is register site -- post the article or delete this thread.

Posted by Dan 2004-05-31 8:14:47 PM|| 2004-05-31 8:14:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 You should read this article and then this. The problem is the media. It is irrelevant whether the problem results from Leftist tranzi agendas, or the stunning ignorance of liberal arts majors who are so clueless they couldn't explain how a lightbulb works, yet gleefully pontificate on how to solve hugely complex real-world problems. So how to solve it. Technology will and is democratizing the dissemination of information (RB being a case in point). I view the impact of the internet as profound as that of the printing press was to hide-bound medieval societies. Its the ultimate disruptive technology. In the the short term the US military needs to utilize one resource that it has and the media desperately wants video and reports from soldiers on the ground or in the air. I am mystified as to why it isn't giving out the kinds of images we saw in Gulf war 1. The technology is there. Why isn't it being used? Are lawyers getting in the way?

Posted by Phil B 2004-05-31 8:15:34 PM|| 2004-05-31 8:15:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Dan - Tipper must be reg'd everywhere, lol, but he offers a cure: BugMeNot, thank goodness. Go there and enter the main URL of the desired site to get a login. They seem to have about 90% of the common sites covered.

Posted by .com 2004-05-31 8:35:35 PM|| 2004-05-31 8:35:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Phil, good questions. I suspect it is not only the lawyers but the politicians who are holding up the exploitation of new technology. If the Pentagon "goes direct" in the PR battle, what are the second and third order implications? It's one thing to mount a PR campaign to get a weapons system approved by Congress, quite another to convince the American people that we are "winning" a war the media wants to convince them we are losing.

The other guys seem to be doing a much better job than we in the information war. But a lot of it is junk and lies. Their audience is less sophisticated and cynical than our own. I don't think we need an al-Jezeera and I doubt it would work.

Some of our failure is due to the fact that ocupation and reconstruction is a defensive activity. Embeds worked very well to transmit the feel of combat to the homefront without sending too much information to the enemy. There is nothing exciting or newsworthy about the convoy that gets through. Only the one that gets ambushed.

It isn't just the lawyers and politicians either. Gen. Schoomaker and Sec. Brownlee had an article in the summer 2004 Parameters. They begin: "President Bush told us that this war will be unlike any other in our Nationâs history. He was right. After our initial expeditionary responses and successful major combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, those operations have become protracted campaigns where we are providing the conditions of security needed to wage a conflictâaÂ war of ideas." Wow, I said, they get it.

The the article went on to discuss Change, Modular Units, Training, Doctrine, Logistics and Installations among others. These are important topics, but what is the conection to the war of ideas? Do these guys realize they could lose another war in the living rooms of America again? Embeds were great, but there was no follow up.

Still, it is a critical front on which we are losing, in many respects because we are fighting the last war with old weapons.

Posted by Mr. Davis 2004-05-31 9:01:27 PM|| 2004-05-31 9:01:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 I don't do registrations......

Posted by Halfass Pete 2004-05-31 11:05:18 PM|| 2004-05-31 11:05:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 HP - see #3.

Posted by .com 2004-05-31 11:10:12 PM|| 2004-05-31 11:10:12 PM|| Front Page Top

15:05 jules 187
14:23 jules 187
08:56 Anonymous4617
05:58 rkb
05:48 JFM
05:13 Phil B
03:22 Zenster
03:21 Mike Sylwester
03:19 Mike Sylwester
01:15 Tresho
01:11 .com
01:06 Phil B
00:26 Mark Espinola
00:21 Tresho
00:12 Tresho
00:05 Atomic Conspiracy
00:05 Desert Blondie
23:56 Zenster
23:48 Anonymous4617
23:48 Zenster
23:46 Tresho
23:37 Phil B
23:36 The Doctor
23:33 Zenster