What will Victory look like? How will we know if we have won? Is it un-patriotic to ask these questions? On the contrary, it is important that we do. Citizens, far from the battlefield will ask. Politicians will pander.
I say this often: The only force on earth that can defeat Our Troops is our own Body Politic. They cannot do so, with out the ill-informed approval of the electorate. But the same old adversaries are gathering to mount a new campaign against Afghanistan, as they did against Iraq, as they did against Viet Nam. They needed to find a new relevancy and found it in both a transitional issue (Gitmo) and one that will be here for some time(Afghanistan). Jonn Lillyea of This Ain't Hell covers the events in the District of Confusion.
Wars are no longer fought only on the battlefield. It's not a conspiracy theory. It is reality that international political ideologies take their message directly to the citizens of their opponents. It's probably one of the places that the US is least proficient. "Disinformation," "Propaganda,"and
Propaganda is perhaps the most confrontational term of the three, but is not necessarily what it is perceived. At one time, governments had a "Ministry of Propaganda," to provide the official side of the story. Propaganda is not necessarily lies, but in many allegations and many cases, it is. It is designed to shape public opinion.
Disinformation came to be used effectively during World War II and the Soviets in particular learned its value. Stalin had many people executed based on his belief in the campaigns executed by the Nazis. When both Nazi defectors and Soviet Spies were telling him Hitler was about to attack, he was convinced they were wrong.
A disinformation campaign also convinced Hitler that the Allies would be attacking somewhere besides Normandy. Without it, we would have lost many more Troops on D-Day. We may have lost the battle and the War, if Hitler was not so adamant in his convictions that it was only a ruse.
But the Soviets did not stop their misinformation machine after WWII. They perfected it. They used it in their goals of global expansion. They used it in their proxy wars in Central and South America. They used it to influence the world body at the UN. Organizations were created inside Our Nation to further their goals. Organizations were created in Europe.
The Cold War was many small hot wars by proxy as well as constant vigilance, readiness, and espionage. It was as stated by the opponent: "Diplomacy is simply war fought on all fronts, including economic, diplomatic, and political." Some of those small hot wars were: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, & Peru. The United States made mistakes but did other things well. As of 2000, only Colombia was still hot and the rebels there had turned to drug-running more than ideological revolution.
One of the things the US had done well was teach allied officers in Latin America how to fight and more importantly how to fight humanely against an inhumane enemy. Sometimes we taught the latter lesson better than at other times. And not every student took the lessons to heart. Then again, not every US Troop takes to heart DoD values of Honor, Integrity, and Honesty. Some bad apples will always exist. Some will be thrown out and some will escape scrutiny and become criminals.
To perfect the curriculum, DoD set up the School of Americas, where each student was required to learn the Respect for Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. Students were screened and those with a history of abuses were disallowed. And precisely because it was an effective program, it was targeted by a disinformation campaign.
The adversary touted the failures of the program as representative of the whole. It touted Noriega and even Hugo Chavez, back when he was a two-bit Colonel who failed in his coup d'etats. It's much more silent on that relationship now, even if ramblings about the program can still be heard in places like Yahoo Answers.
The Misinformation campaign worked. The School of Americas is no longer, but the campaign against the program is still out there. It has less press and fewer supporters, but it still has an annual march at the gates of Ft Benning.
The average protestor has had little knowledge of the overall ideology behind the movement. The organizations are built on specific issues, not a communist ideology. And anyone that speaks about the ideology is branded with "McCarthyism."
McCarthy did considerable harm to this Nation and its defense. In his zeal to prosecute the enemies of the American way of life, and his political enemies, he became an unwitting accomplice to his enemies. He attacked with rumor and innuendo, and actually began getting fed those rumors by his enemy. His cause and he became disdained because it was as ruthless as were those he was persecuting.
It is not illegal, nor should it be to hold views contrary to the government. Having those views and expressing them is and should be protected by the Bill of Rights. They should be countered not by prosecution and muzzles, but by Free Speech and Facts.
Government Transparency is not a bad thing. For the most part, our government is doing the right thing and transparency will only highlight that. But as one friend reminds me, there is still corruption (though both minor and more adept) in government. Transparency is like light to roaches.
And there are other areas that require Government Secrecy. Strategies, Tactics, and Intelligence Operations come to mind. It would be counter-productive to tell the world what we know and what we plan to do. The public has no right to know the social security number, nor the address of our Soldiers. Yet, the Troops have the right to tell the world as much about their own lives as they desire, even if they go beyond prudence but not if they put lives at stake. And they have a responsibility to protect their fellow Troops from dicslosures they didn't authorize.
But to get back on topic, the misinformation and disinformation campaigns of adversaries continue, using our own right to Free Speech. It is not a grand conspiracy by a small cabal to take over the world, but the war of information by adversaries to undermine support of their adversaries to combat them.
Just as the Soviets realized that fueling the anti-war movements of the 60's and 70's was in their interests, just as the Soviets realized the undermining US support for our democratic allies in Latin America was important to their goals in the 70's and 80's, so too do modern adversaries realize that undermining US Support for our democratic allies in Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan is in their interests, even when they are not ideologically aligned with the enemies we or our allies fight there.
That's not a conspiracy theory. It's world politics. It's military strategy, a key component of which is to "destroy the enemy's will to fight." That component is accomplished not only with bullets and bombs, but also with protests and propaganda leaflets. And it is a reason why militarily we must conform to our values and not fall prey to sometimes primal urges to prosecute the war with the same tactics as the enemy.
There do exist people who truly believe that war can be put into the dustbin of the history books, but there also exist people who use that belief of others to undermine efforts to bring peace and self-determination to the people they desire to oppress.
And there are different reasons why divergent groups would ally themselves to such a movement, even if they did not believe it its "causes." While a Medusa Benjamin and Adam Kokesh may espouse radical change in governance, even if having radically different views of the form of it, a John Kerry or Barack Obama may have more base political goals for embracing the support of a vocal minority.
But a problem arises if they claim the throne on such a rise of protests, even if they have no belief in the veracity of their slogans. They risk backlash if they do not make good on their promises. So we now see presidential decrees that Gitmo will be shut down despite recognition by the administration that it has been run in accordance with international law and specifically The Geneva Conventions. But we also see that the Iraq policy is changed only in its labels and terminology and the backlash by those protestors in that recognition.
We are winning the war against islamist terrorists, in Afghanistan, as we did in Iraq, and we know much more about the thought processes of our enemies now, than we did in 2001. We know that our enemies are anti-islamic, power hungry thugs that convince their followers to commit haram, an unforgiveable sin, suicide.
We are exacting a high toll on the enemy for their precious few lucky days. We are keeping Our Citizens safe by sacrificing and risking our selves and they need to know we are winning. And if you are unsure of that, then you need to peruse the headlines of the Afghanistan News Category right here on this page.