The use of media as a weapon
by Eric Margolis
http://www.soundvision.com/info/terrorism/margolis3.asp
In war, said Napoleon, the moral element and public relations are half the
battle. And that was before radio and television. For the first time, a
Mideastern antagonist of the United States - Osama bin Laden - has not only
mastered public relations, but is using the media as a potent weapon against the
world's mightiest military and media power.
Washington had planned to repeat in Afghanistan the success it enjoyed during
the 1991 Gulf war against Iraq, when the Pentagon monopolized, filtered, and
shaped all news coming from the theatre of operations. To this day, the number
of Iraqis killed by U.S. bombing remains secret.
However, researchers have just learned through the Freedom of Information Act
that the U.S. government expressly destroyed Iraq's sewage and water treatment
facilities, knowing full well the result would be widespread disease and
epidemics. In short, biological warfare. The U.S. refuses to allow Iraq to
import chlorine to purify water.
According to the UN, 500,000 Iraqis, mostly children, have died from disease and
malnutrition caused by U.S. sanctions. Thousands more Iraqis have died from
cancers linked to U.S. depleted uranium munitions. When asked about this huge
toll, then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright memorably replied,
"the price is worth it." Is the anthrax terror now afflicting America
payback?
In Afghanistan, the Taliban stole a march on the U.S. by giving Al-Jazeera, the
Arab world's only uncensored TV station, exclusive coverage. Bin Laden uses Al-Jazeera
and Pakistani media to promote his anti-U.S. cause and challenge America's
control of information. As a result, the White House is trying to silence him by
the disgraceful recourse of censoring/pressuring America's media. Almost as
shameful, much of the U.S. media has co-operated, reducing its role from useful critics to public relations hacks.
While much of bin Laden's hate-filled statements are being kept out of the U.S.
media, the Pakistani paper Ummat published a lengthy interview with him that
reveals much about the motivation of America's arch-enemy. The interview
disproves the idea being promoted in the U.S. media that bin Laden's actions are
driven by some sort of Islamic totalitarianism and have nothing to do with Israel.
Bin Laden denies his al-Qaida organization was responsible for the suicide
attacks against the U.S. But he applauds them. He suggests the attacks were made
by Americans from either intelligence agencies or "a hidden
government." According to him, "we are against the system which makes
other nations slaves of the United States, or forces them to mortgage their
political and economic freedoms."
Bin Laden insists that Israel's repression of Palestinians is the principal
reason for his war against America. He argues U.S. foreign policy is totally
controlled by the pro-Israel lobby, whose first priority, he says, is Israel,
not America. He claims, implausibly, that he is not really fighting Americans,
only Israel and its allies. (Then again, Bush is just as implausibly telling Afghans he's not fighting them, just
"terrorists".)
Bin Laden's second reason for fighting America is the punishment the U.S. has
inflicted on Iraq at, he alleges, Israel's behest: he claims the U.S. killed one
million Iraqis. U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Islam's holy land, come
third on bin Laden's hate list.
Such claims would normally be ignored, but thanks to the publicity bin Laden has
received, he has unfortunately become a cult figure across much of the Islamic
world, perceived as a Muslim David defying the American Goliath; or an Arab Che
Guevara, determined to uproot America's omnipresent influence from the Mideast.
When bin Laden is eventually killed, he will become a figure of veneration and
martyrdom.
Arabs already call bin Laden "the Second Saladin," after the great
general who crushed the Christian crusaders. Bin Laden enjoys a unique asset no
other leader of the Muslim world today possesses: respect. He has cleverly
crafted for himself the image of an "Ansar", the desert warrior of
Islam's early era: courageous, austere, honourable, driven by faith.
Small bands of such warriors and explorers helped spread Islam from Morocco to
China. In Islamic culture, as in Japan, a noble warrior who battles impossible
odds, knowing he will die, is held in highest esteem. Martyrdom for Islam is
also venerated by Muslims. Bin Laden has captured both themes in a remarkable
display of medieval thinking turbocharged by 21st century public relations.
Westerners see him as a loathsome, murderous fanatic. But to many people in Asia
and Africa, including non-Muslims, bin Laden is a defiant, heroic figure who
gives a measure of self-respect to those who have little; a mujahid, or holy
warrior battling the successor to the British Empire, the American Raj; and an
avenger come to smite the United States for all the real and imagined wrongs it
has done around the
world.
Bin Laden, has proclaimed a jihad, or holy war, against the West, though he has
absolutely no authority to issue religious edicts (fatwas). This has endangered
millions of Muslims living in the West, and provided justification for another
jihad - George Bush's "crusade against terrorism" which will
inevitably hurt Muslims.
Copyright eric s. margolis 2001
Reproduced with permission