Iraqis: Please Pardon Our Women

The World According to Imal ^ | May 6, 2004 | Imal

[Imal]

The photographs of apparent "abuses" of insurgent prisoners by U.S. servicewomen are the scandal du jour. At first blush, it seems to be a devastating blow to America's efforts in Iraq. However, things are not always as they seem. There is definitely more to this than meets the eye.

I'm pretty sure this all got whipped into a scandal because it benefits the U.S. to direct and control its course. Someone released those photographs, and did so purposefully. Their apparent source is a DoD investigation into prison abuses that dates back some months. The DoD even issued a press release when it opened the investigations, but it didn't get traction -- then.

Now we have photographs, most of them featuring U.S. servicewomen humiliating Iraqi men. And the press has ran with it, giving the resulting scandal worldwide resonance, and rousing the usual suspects to rail against the abusive, arrogant Americans. The general in charge claims her troops were probably acting under CIA directions, and indeed, they most likely were.

U.S. interrogation techniques are noteworthy for their almost exclusive reliance on psychological techniques versus relatively crude physical pain techniques. We use fear, discomfort, sensory deprivation, lighting, sound (including carefully chosen music), a wide variety of drugs and yes, humiliation to break the wills of interrogation subjects.

In this case, I smell psyops and clever manipulation. Jihadis will fear humiliation in our prisons (a fate worse than death) and suffer a general sense of demoralization. It's already happening.

Specifically, being humiliated by women is terrifying to them. They value their masculinity, bravado and machismo above all, and are consequently very insecure about it. If we want to make jihadis feel uncomfortable and squirmy about alternatives to glorious martyrdom, we have done so.

Whether deliberate or not (and I think it was), the viral meme is working its way through the Arab mind. Threats of "greater rage" are absurd in the face of already constant rage. The practical threat of humiliation instead of glory will work its doubt into even the most devoted insurgent.

Bush's contrition only rubs salt into the wounds to Arab pride. Not only are these jihadis reduced to naked, groveling miserables -- in front of the world, and without a mark on them -- but we act like it didn't even require effort.

The message: "We didn't do it on purpose! Some of our women got out of control and abused your men." Ouch! Anathema to the Arab man. That's gotta hurt.

Meanwhile, Bush and Rumsfeld will weather a ridiculous partisan tempest in a teapot and come out looking more noble than before, while once again leaving their opponents with egg on their faces. But first, they must face the same old music they've always faced, just louder and more shrill for a short time.

And perhaps most important of all, U.S. troops have, in the course of a single "scandal", been elevated from the dubious status of being "beaten down by entrenched insurgents" to being "abusive occupiers". That's quite a change in perception. Indeed, it is a master stroke in public relations.

The only real losers in all this are the soldiers who were played for patsies as part of the operation. But America has ways of taking care of its own. I see money in their futures.

I may be wrong, but it looks like a queen's pawn opening to me. We'll see who wins the game. My money is on the United States.

[sweetliberty]

"We can't bury them in pigskins, so we went for the next best thing."

And I still fail to understand why.

[Ciexyz]

I find the whole incident depressing and turn off the TV when it comes on.

[Imal]

Yea BUT I GUESS THE MORE PUBLICITY THIS GETS THE LESS EFFECTIVE THAT WILL BE.

That's the beauty of a well-crafted operation. I can expound on this all the live long day, and it's still nothing more than a "black helicopter theory".

And the truth is, I honestly don't know one way or the other.

I am also convinced that this was done under the time-honored doctrine of "plausible deniability". I'm sure the President is honestly shocked and dismayed. This aint't the way they do it in Texas.

Secretary Rumsfeld, on the other hand, seems to be parsing his words far more carefully than even the President is in his carefully-parsed statements. I'm pretty sure he knows what really happened, whatever that may be.

Meanwhile, the outrageous images continue to ricochet throughout the Arab world, doing their pernicious work in attacking the very image of Arab manhood. Let's not forget that Arab women are also seeing these images.

And does anyone think for so much as a moment that those staged hecklers in the hearings today could have possibly gotten past the kind of security we have in Washington these days?

Among other things, I am a fan of good cinema. This is classic cinema.

Genius!

[Imal]

This is far better than the threat of pork. The greatest weakness the jihadis have is sex, and we're making damn sure everyone knows it, to their great collective embarrassment.

If they didn't have a "complex" about it before, they sure do now, and the effect is worldwide.

[GOPJ]

So, you're saying this is the equivalent of Saddam's dental exam?