A two month old Iraqi television program, Terror in the Hands of Justice, is proving to be a decisive weapon in the fight against terrorists and anti-government forces. The program shows captured terrorists confessing to their crimes, which are described in grisly detail. The show has to be one of the more useful applications of Information Warfare of late. Al Jazeera always played up Americans hurting Iraqis, when in fact most of the Iraqi casualties in the past year have been inflicted by Sunni Arab terrorists. Getting the captured terrorists on TV regularly resonates londly with most Iraqis. There may soon be a similar program doing the same thing regarding the criminal gangs, who pull off dozens of kidnappings, and even more robberies, rapes and burglaries each week. But for now, the idea is to get Iraqis believing that if they pass on information about the terrorists, the Iraqi cops can catch them. By letting everyone know that the terrorists are not invincible (which is the al Jazeera line), you get the tips needed to catch more of them. The show runs twice a day, and has been denounced by American liberals as encouraging vigilante justice by the Iraqis. That is does, and it works. By law, every Iraqi household can have one firearm (usually an AK-47), and these weapons are not being turned on the carloads of armed terrorists and criminals who used to boldly cruise through neighborhoods unhampered. Security, or the lack of it, is a major complaint among Iraqis. Now the terrorists and criminals are on the defensive. Disarming the Iraqi population wont be possible until there is a lot less crime. A lot of those weapons will have to be taken out of circulation eventually, if only to cut down on the family, and tribal, feuds that often turn into gun battles. But youve got to start somewhere, and expecting American troops to do it all by themselves was never a realistic possibility.
Sunni Arab Iraqis want the show shut down, fearing that it will inflame anti-Sunni Arab feelings. But the fact is that most of the current violence is committed by Sunni Arab terrorists and nationalists who want the Sunni Arab minority running the country again. Moreover, many Sunni Arabs are victims of the terrorist and nationalist attacks. The most valuable tips are coming from Sunni Arabs, fed up with the atrocities being committed in their behalf.
