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| Tom Ricks on Israel |
| 2006-08-07 |
| Make sure the tin foil is tight, this is a bumpy ride With Howie Kurtz and Tom Ricks: KURTZ: Tom Ricks, "The New York Times" reported the other day, quote, "Israel is now fighting to win the battle of perceptions," which to me says the battle of headlines. And, in fact, an Israeli cabinet minister was quoted, not by name, as saying, "That the narrative at the end, is part of the problem." I'm starting to hear echoes of Iraq. That couldn't possibly be Olmert, could it? RICKS: Echoes of Iraq, yes. But also the Israelis are very sophisticated in their handling of the media. They consider it part of the battlefield, officially. The word "narrative" always comes up with conversations with Israeli national security officials. They consider shaping the narrative, the battle for the narrative, to be key as part of any war fighting. So they see the media as part of the battlefield. And, in fact, there's some belief from our KURTZ: Tom Ricks, you've covered a number of military conflicts, including Iraq, as I just mentioned. Is civilian casualties increasingly going to be a major media issue? In conflicts where you don't have two standing armies shooting at each other? THOMAS RICKS: I think it will be. But I think civilian casualties are also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon. Sort of a longer term Coventry decision. KURTZ: Hold on, you're suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of it's fire power, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here? RICKS: Yes, that's what military analysts have told me. KURTZ: That's an extraordinary testament to the notion that having people on your own side killed actually works to your benefit in that nobody wants to see your own citizens killed but it works to your benefit in terms of the battle of perceptions here. RICKS: Exactly. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #8 Only "One?", Jeez you're a slave driver to overwork one platoon so hard. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-08-07 19:53 |
| #7 When I become king, and my army goes to war, I'm going to earmark one sniper platoon for media control. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-08-07 14:48 |
| #6 who can tell the difference between State and Arabs? Polgara? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-08-07 11:23 |
| #5 Yes, that's what military analysts have told me. NB: No names for these military analysts. Why? Because either they don't exist, or they're his "sources" at State or among the Arabs. (Though, frankly, who can tell the difference between State and Arabs?) |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-08-07 11:08 |
| #4 The article was reported by CNN, the "Caliphate News Network." |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2006-08-07 10:26 |
| #3 Surely Israel is not that good...not only have they completely infiltrated the entire top leadership of Hizb'Allah, but they secretly replaced all of Beirut's coffee with Folgers' Crystals®! |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-08-07 09:42 |
| #2 Too many drugs in college. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-08-07 09:41 |
| #1 Maybe all of Hezbollah are Mossad agents in disguise! Those tricky Zionists! |
| Posted by: Oldcat 2006-08-07 09:35 |