STRATEGIC WARFARE: MEDIA MANIPULATIONS WITH HOSTAGES

By Norbert

[This article originally published April 17, 2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.feldpolitik.de/feldblog/item.php.]

Are rules valid in war? Who accepts rules when one’s own life or the lives of relatives or friends is threatened?

The US attacked Iraq with a handful of vassals: Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Japan, Poland and various small militarily insignificant states only included to increase the number of participants in the “coalition of the willing”. The “coalition of the willing” is more important morally than militarily. The US government wages war against Iraq and depends on the good mood in its population. Governments are more successful in war when they have friends fighting with them…

This point is proving increasingly to be the main problem of the US administration and a main argument against the efficacy of the military in solving problems. The “Iraqi defenders” have no chance militarily against the superior force of the attacking military machine. However a military machine is only as strong as the morale of its troops and morale in the “homeland”. Whoever damages morale torpedoes military campaigns from a completely unexpected direction, from home.

These simple strategic reflections are surely the main reason why the Iraqis increasingly take foreigners as hostages and use them as weapons against the aggressors’ morale. The media who immediately report about them supports those taking hostages. A single hostage undermines the war-morale of millions.

First there were Japanese whose pictures circulated around the world. A public debate around the war-action in Iraq was triggered in Japan. Italian media was also shaken by the murder of an Italian mercenary. The arrest of a US soldier is reported today. All these actions are spun out by the media of the impacted countries and increase the pressure on the governments. These governments have been under pressure since the war’s beginning and the historical worldwide anti-war demonstrations of February 15, 2003. The hostages serve as levers for intensifying the pressure. Consequently, the peace demonstrations and the Iraqi resistance support one another. Even if they could not prevent the war, these constellations enter in the plans of future militant conflicts. Among possible reactions,

· All media will be kept outside (see Telepolis article on Al Jazeera)
· All foreigners will be kept out of conflict regions (which may be difficult on account of the presence of soldiers)
· The knowledge gains acceptance that wars are not a suitable means of conflict resolution.

In globalized times, the first two points will lead to shifting the conflicts as already happened with the attacks in Madrid (even if the attacks are officially represented as “normal terror”, a connection to the war in Iraq that passes into the war against terror can hardly be denied). This danger may even generally strengthen the rejection of war in the population so that war may die out and not humanity.

[Addendum: The press forgets but you do not forget… Opinion in the US changes suddenly and some people get cold feet. Americans are not as foolish as you think and we are not as foolish as our government… The theater in Iraq cannot long continue since the next scene is about to unfold. What that next scene will be is certainly not in the hands of the government.]