June 21, 2007: Recent developments in the Haditha
case (marines accused of murdering civilians in Iraq) not only show how easily
the media can get things wrong, but it also exposes how al Qaeda is taking a
new approach to asymmetric warfare. In essence, the controversy over the events
in Haditha was a more refined attack than the claims after the 2002 Battle of
Jenin. And, despite claims from certain politicians, there was no cover-up
attempted. Now, some of the charges have been dismissed, others are in doubt,
and it is beginning to look like the accusations of a massacre may be untrue.Al Qaeda faces the same problem that the
Palestinian terrorists at Jenin faced in 2002. They are unable to win in a
straight fight with troops that are highly trained and motivated. American and
Israeli troops tend to be among the best in the world on a soldier-for-soldier
basis. All the terrorists really could do was to try to make the Americans (or
Israelis, as the case could be) look bad. Sometimes, this involves exacting a
high price on the attacking force. More often, it involves creating the
impression that the American or Israeli troops are indiscriminate killers who
routinely slaughter civilians. This not only weakens the resolve of the
populations in the West, it also will help generate new recruits for the
terrorists.
In the case of Jenin, the Palestinians claimed that
hundreds had been killed in a massacre. The resulting investigations from the
United Nations found no evidence of a massacre involving hundreds (as claimed
by various reports from Palestinian sources and echoed by human rights groups
and the press). Instead, the total number of casualties was set at 52, of which
only 22 were confirmed as civilians. That said, the Palestinian media campaign
largely succeeded. The claims of a massacre got front-page coverage - the
corrections got much less exposure, and much of the notice of the facts came
from blogs.
Hezbollah took the same approach in the brief 2006
war with Israel. They were much clumsier, though, and their media manipulation
efforts were outed in the blogosphere. One free-lancer who did work for Reuters
was revealed to have doctored his photos. This was a huge black eye for the
Iranian-sponsored terrorist organization.
It is now apparent that the Haditha media
manipulation was much more successful. In this case, the media effort was
helped out through the fact that the aftermath was mishandled. The initial
Haditha investigations uncovered some apparent discrepancies in the Marines' stories,
and a criminal investigation by NCIS was launched. NCIS filed criminal charges,
and internal investigations showed that officers failed to ask the right
questions.
In essence, terrorists have employed a media
strategy. This strategy is not intended to target the troops - or to cause
damage, although that is welcomed. The strategy is instead to convince the
media - and the politicians through the media - that the war on terror is a
lost cause, with the United States and its allies doing nothing but losing men
and equipment for no gain. Worse, these efforts will make future attacks
inevitable as terrorists seek to avenge massacres that never happened. - Harold
C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)
