Some quick links to other posts you should read. No time to comment.
- Life after Jerusalem captured SECDEF’s comments on the U.S. foreign policy budget imbalance. Read it with her smart highlights. (See this post for a previous iteration of his stump speech also this for more background)
- Related to the subject of New Media and the Warfighter, see Steve Corman’s post on AQ fundraising videos.
- Also related, see Noah Shachtman’s post on Taliban threats to blow cell towers.
- See David Betz’s post at King’s of War on NATO’s use of YouTube in Afghanistan (ok, so it’s not new news — his post is 3 months old — but it fits the theme)
- And then Chris Albon finds an interesting analogy.
- also, I’ve add some thoughts to the comments of my Not Afraid to Talk response to Marc Lynch.
Also, in case you missed it, from Inside the Pentagon (sub req’d):
The Pentagon’s Strategic Communication Integration Group (SCIG) ceased to exist this month, opening a new chapter in the department’s efforts to communicate with the world. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England decided not to renew the group’s charter, so it expired March 1, officials familiar with the decision told Inside the Pentagon. The termination of the group was not announced publicly. …
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen complained that officials are too fixated on the word “strategic” when in reality the lines between strategic, operational and tactical issues are blurred almost beyond distinction, particularly in the realm of communications (ITP, Jan. 10, p1). In a memo to England, Mullen argued that U.S. deeds — not Pentagon Web sites or communications plans – are the best way to impart the country’s intentions on the world stage. The Pentagon should focus less on promoting its own story globally and more on listening to Muslims worldwide and understanding the subtleties of that community, the admiral wrote. …
And then lastly, since this has been the week of putting forth operational and strategic arguments on the use of information and persuasion, and as one colleague has noted my, um, disagreement with Smith-Mundt (although he makes one statement that’s untrue, I’ll let you figure figure out which of the three it is), a piece of domestic propaganda that today we think is illegal across the board (which reminds me of this distantly related post):
