Did the Arab "Street" Geta Message We Didn't Mean to Send?

self | 5/7/04 | LS

[LS]

Amidst all the apologies, I want to suggest we all (Hillary Clinton here) take a deep breath and consider something that no one in the administration or Congress has (publicly) considered:

The POW photos are having an unintended effect on the Arab "Street" and the "resistance."

By now, everyone pretty well knows that Arab societies base everything on power and perceptions of power. In part, that is why so many Freepers and conservatives got their panties in a bunch because it appeared in public like "apologizing" was a sign of weakness.

Ah, my friends. You aren't thinking like an Arab. The "street" and, indeed, the leadership doesn't trust much of what we say---they only look at what we do. It would have made no difference if Bush formally apologized and sent each detainee a bouquet of flowers---the "street" would see that as a sham, a pretense, a distraction from the "real" policy.

No, I suggest something else. That the Arab "street" and especially the "resistance" has taken from those photos a message we didn't intend to send, but one that strikes fear into the very heart of them---a message of pure power and dominance. The submissive positions of these "tough" Iraqi men under the heels and attached to the leashes of WOMEN (and relatively small women, at that) sends a very powerful message to the "street."

Don't screw with the Americans. Oh, they'll "apologize," be we know that when the hearings are over, and the attention is off, they can do what they want.

I want to reiterate: this is foreign to our way of thinking. Unless you're a hard-core Democrat, you don't pathologically lie to achieve your objectives. But we must start thinking like the enemy.

Has anyone noticed that we virtually walked into Najaf this week, unopposed? Al-Sadr did nothing. Has anyone noticed that Fallujah is quiet? Very few roadside bombs/suicide bombs in the last couple of days. This could all change, but it is eerie that when a message of power is sent out all over the Middle East---unintentionally on our part---it resonates. Big time.

[FITZ]

the fifth column media, against him.

In one other way also --- they've now been exposed to porn. I bet more than a few actually like it or can't get the images out of their heads. Fantasizing about a woman in a military outfit taking sexual advantage of a man? Being forced to masturbate while a woman looks on? They might be arabs but they're still men.

[Joe Republc]

Q: What is the sole nature of at least some of the 'torture' the libs are screaming about?

A: Naked men touching each other.

Just occurred to me...

Isn't this awfully HOMOPHOBIC of our dear press??!?!? I mean, sure, few people want to drop their drawers in public. And few want to be in close proximity or touching others who also lack the benefit of clothing.

But, this, this is nothing short of TORTURE, and demands apologies from our President, and the resignation of our Secretary of Defense? Why is this such an abomination??? Because these are men forced into simulated homosexual behavior. TORTURE, TORTURE, TORTURE!!!!

But how can the same folks that want to say it's OK for Heather to have two mommies, that say it's OK for two men to get 'married' and have children, it's OK for people in San Francisco to put on even more of a show in a Gay Pride parades, and it's just terrible for anyone not to accept and promote gay behavior...... how can these same people say it is nothing short of torture to force naked men to be on top of each other?

OK, I'm reaching here to make a point. But underneath it all, this still shows MOST PEOPLE (myself included) are totally repulsed by any exhibition or any behavior that resembles anything close to homosexual behavior. Well, at least between men. (OK, I shouldn't have added that last part.)

-- Joe

[don'tbedenied]

Life is strange. Pictures we didn't want to release, released by people trying to damage our cause, may in fact further our cause. It looks like the apology that was demanded from our leaders is being interpeted by Muslims as "We're sorry our women humiliated your men. We'll stop them from doing it again."
Weird, The law of unintended consequences.

[upchuck]

"Thinking like an Arab." Is that sorta like, "Walking like an Egyptian?"

[Aggie Mama]

Agree with you completely.

[lainde]

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm....

[FITZ]

You know what really makes me think you're right on this was that story out at the beginning of this war --- when the American tanks first rolled through Iraq and they had loudspeakers shouting that Arab men have little members and the Arab men came running out from their hiding places all angry and mad at being so insulted.

[FITZ]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3068575/

The Secret War


April 21 issue - Know thine enemy is a cardinal rule of war. Ignorance was costly for American soldiers fighting guerrillas in Vietnam. Before plunging into Iraq, U.S. psychological-warfare operators studied certain cultural stereotypes.

One was that young Arab toughs cannot tolerate insults to their manhood. So, as American armored columns pushed down the road to Baghdad, 400-watt loudspeakers mounted on Humvees would, from time to time, blare out in Arabic that Iraqi men are impotent. The Fedayeen, the fierce but undisciplined and untrained Iraqi irregulars, could not bear to be taunted. Whether they took the bait or saw an opportunity to attack, many Iraqis stormed out of their concealed or dug-in positions, pushing aside their human shields in some cases—to be slaughtered by American tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. “What you say is many times more important than what you do in this part of the world,” says a senior U.S. psy-warrior.

[Quix]

I think and hope

there's a very significant chunk of truth to what you say.

[findingtruth]

"But when my daughter is born, she be named Lynndie!"

Poor girl. Named after woman who has totally disgraced her uniform and her country.

[don'tbedenied]

I can hardly believe it, but I feel the move towards Lynndie becoming a cult heroine.

[tertiary01]

I'll bet we could release all these captives today to their little villages and they would all be killed by their kinfolk by next week for bringing shame to their families.

[bonfire]

"What if secretly that was the message we meant to send?"

NOW you're onto something....hmmmm

[jwalburg]

move on

Haven't seen that one in a while. Maybe it's time to resurrect that phrase as something other than a Marxist protest group.

[lainde]

Good point! So leash-girl may have been useful...I like it. If you don't confess we'll turn you over to our WOMEN!

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

The Real Humiliation?

If being naked and masturbating in public is to an Arab "worse" than taking a beating or being killed, why didn't the prisoners do the honorable thing, refuse and risk the beating? HMMM???

Seems this claim of Arab sensitivities may be a bit disengenuous. Or they were really humiliated because, as usual, they gave in too easily?

For a Christian, denial of Christ is spiritual death. But Muhammad recognized this weakness in his Arab followers and when his friend, Ammar bin Yasir, admitted to denying Islam as his parents were being killed, Muhammad forgave him. Then he "received a revelation", Qur'an 16:106 which permitted denial of Islam under duress. This practice, known as Taqiyyah or lying for the faith, has gotten easier and easier ever since. Taqiyyah is fundamental to the Shi'a and even the Sunni, which many Shi'a consider kufr, do not trust them.

[blandbutmarvellous]

They've lived with Saddam for a generation. This is nothing to them.