Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Did the Arab "Street" Geta Message We Didn't Mean to Send?
self | 5/7/04 | LS

Posted on 05/07/2004 6:31:42 PM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bush; democrats; iraq; iraqipow; pows; rumsfeld; waronterror
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-131 next last
To: fhayek
#1 This is war, not paint-ball. You do what it takes to win. If humiliation is an effective tool to interrogate prisoners, than so be it.

Damn straight. Can you imagine us apologizing and offering cash reparations to jailed lower-level Nazi crimminals during WW2 for "humiliating" them? The American people would've been horrified by such a suggestion. .....but back then we were made of much sterner stuff.

21 posted on 05/07/2004 6:45:52 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: LS
Ah, an insightful post, with many thoughtful comments.
22 posted on 05/07/2004 6:46:01 PM PDT by findingtruth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
Interesting take LS, if it were the case, we could have peppered the Arab streets months ago with Photoshop bombs. Then again, who knows that the psych ops folks are doing?
23 posted on 05/07/2004 6:46:35 PM PDT by bwteim (Begin With The End In Mind)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
What if secretly that was the message we meant to send?
24 posted on 05/07/2004 6:47:45 PM PDT by FITZ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
This is entirely true. The Muslims need to know if they slaughter Americans they will end up led around on a leash by a girl.
25 posted on 05/07/2004 6:49:13 PM PDT by Ukiapah Heep (Shoes for Industry!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
I think you're correct;in spades.

The only that would have made those pictures even worse,to the "Arab Street",would have been if these pictures also showed women rubbing bacon all over those "brave" soldiers for Allah.

26 posted on 05/07/2004 6:50:22 PM PDT by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: get'emall
Perhaps alSadr crapped his kaftan when he saw those photos and pictured himself naked... barking like a dog with a chain on his neck... at the end of a leash held by a 90 pound woman sucking on a Pall Mall.

Imagine what some of those Arab women who get beaten if they let their burkas slip and reveal a little bit of their face are feeling when they see a tiny American woman leading one of their abusers around on a leash. Psychologicaly this has to be jolting.

27 posted on 05/07/2004 6:50:59 PM PDT by FITZ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: LS
Brilliant analysis. Should be passed on to Conservative friendly newspapers (Washington Times, Orange Co., CA Register etc.).

Bob
28 posted on 05/07/2004 6:51:08 PM PDT by Signalman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
I think Rush brought this up today.
29 posted on 05/07/2004 6:51:47 PM PDT by Musket
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
I still wish there were a few buckets of pig guts poured over the naked frat boys - would have sent a stronger message.

(Just joking - but we should have a policy of burying suicide bombers in latrines covered in pig guts - that might send a message.)

30 posted on 05/07/2004 6:52:43 PM PDT by 11th_VA (Freedom is not free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
The Muslim Street. The Muslim street had better get the message if they haven't already gotten it. I agree I think they have.

Next item on the agenda: Hand over Bin Laden al Zawhari and Mullah Omer's heads.

Next item: Re-elect Dubya and keep Rumsie and Rice right where they are.

31 posted on 05/07/2004 6:53:10 PM PDT by eleni121 (Preempt and Prevent---then Destroy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Eala
Sexual Torture ??

This doesn't involve sending Hillary Clinton and Rosie O'Donnell to Iraq does it ??

That sounds too cruel, even for me to devise LOL
32 posted on 05/07/2004 6:54:13 PM PDT by RightWingNut
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Ukiapah Heep
There was the article a couple days ago about the angry mullah because some petite muslim female comedian lifted him up. If I was making MTV videos, I think I'd be seeing a good theme...... sheikhs on leashes --- but I think I'd have their robes left on them.
33 posted on 05/07/2004 6:54:40 PM PDT by FITZ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Bosco
"I venture to suggest that the current inmates of Abu Gharaib are the best treated in the history of the prison."

Yeah....the previous inmates, under Saddam, are dead.

34 posted on 05/07/2004 6:54:52 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Tagging you.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: LS
So...what you are saying is that instead of sending them to the 72 virgins,we are going to relegate them to a lifetime of shame?
35 posted on 05/07/2004 6:55:02 PM PDT by tapatio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LS
"Unless you're a hard-core Democrat, you don't pathologically lie to achieve your objectives. But we must start thinking like the enemy."

If that's the case, then we must decry the Left's attack upon fetishism as an attack against the very font of multiculturalism. You'd figure someone as liberal as Kerry would be the first one to stand up and speak out on behalf of Leather Lovers, Pain Mistresses, and every Sub/Dom in the military.

lol. Personally I think there's a few bad apples in every barrel. Prosecute them and move on.

36 posted on 05/07/2004 6:55:28 PM PDT by Darheel (Visit the strange and wonderful.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Eala
I don't know if this sexual harassment will do the job. Personally I would like us to locate this piss-ant called Al-Sadr and the mosque he is located in. Once located we drop a MOAB (Muslims & Other Arab Bastards) bomb. I figure a few of these, probably less than 10-20 would shut the Arab-Muslim's up.

For added affect I suggest that someone send a anonymous package to CAIR with the following item. Of that item I am not meaning a bomb or anything lethal, just fun. At last I heard that the office of CAIR was in DC. It would be a device that would sound like an old fashion air-raid Klaxon, set off by any US Military Aircraft. Then I would order 24 hour random fly-overs. CAIR is a Islamist terrorist group that was founded by terrorists, have supported terrorists and should be spit on by every TRUE American reporter they whine to.

SledgeCS

37 posted on 05/07/2004 6:57:07 PM PDT by SledgeCS (If you call me a European-American, get ready for a fight over that INSULT...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: LS
Well, they are certainly dancing in the liberal streets. Just like the Arab streets, except no liberal ever likes America.
38 posted on 05/07/2004 6:58:45 PM PDT by Bernard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FITZ
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1126307/posts
Mullah furious after defamatory stunt
Nettavisen ^ | 28.04.04 | Av Carin Pettersson og Kjetil Mæland
Posted on 04/28/2004 8:53:32 PM EDT by aculeus
39 posted on 05/07/2004 6:58:47 PM PDT by bwteim (Begin With The End In Mind)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: LS
Makes sense to me. I know several Muslim men that treat their wives like a piece of property.
40 posted on 05/07/2004 7:01:22 PM PDT by new cruelty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-131 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson