Islamism is winning the cognitive war – thanks to manipulative and gullible journalists

[Mosby]

Anyone who remembers the halcyon dreams of the 1990s, of civil society spreading the world over, heralding a new peaceful, global millennium, must marvel at the path the young 21st century has taken. Even those who paid attention to global Jihad before the millennium could not imagine how vulnerable the West would prove in the coming, wildly asymmetrical war. Those who, over the course of the last 13 years, have awakened to the ever-growing danger of Islamism and to the astonishing inability of decent people – Muslims and non-Muslims – to effectively oppose its aggressions, owe themselves a brief lesson in cognitive warfare, and a second look at the nuclear bomb of that warfare, the Muhammad al Durah affair.

All asymmetrical wars take place primarily in the cognitive arena, with the major theater of war the enemy’s public sphere. The goal is to convince your far more powerful enemy not to fight. In defensive cases, from the Maccabees to the Vietnamese, this has meant getting imperial powers to “go home.” But Islamists who want to spread Dar al Islam conduct an offensive campaign: how to get your targets to surrender on their own home ground? In this seemingly absurd venture, they have had remarkable success.

The mainstream news media – their journalists, editors, producers – constitute a central front of this cognitive war: the “weak” but aggressive side cannot have success without the witting or unwitting cooperation of the enemy’s journalists. The success of global Jihad in eliciting our media’s cooperation with their goals

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/richardlandes/100210522/islamism-is-winning-the-cognitive-war-thanks-to-the-media/

[pretzel4gore]

1. millions of dead say otherwise....

millions of 3rd world people, that is...
lookit, i believe mr pig has been in charge ever since the 'euro civil war 1914-1945' and, when the dust on that settled Mister Pig hurriedly set up 'The Revolution'to fail, take the blame for all evil and thereby justify multi-trillion $$$ military & police budgets (plus employing mr pig's greedy spawn) which she/ it has done sucksessfully/systemically since...well, say since they murdered FDR (as he wasn't rightwing enough, though posh enough) in 1944....WE pump 96 million metric tonnes carbon into urth's 12 mile thick atmosphere EVERYDAY; yet there still a big fight over climate change (is there one, yes or no!) ...The Islamic thing has been an excellent foil for the pig to wrap up HIS REVOLUTION in since regan was PUT INTO the WHouse, but i really do think....for example, JFK was killed by Dulles brothers, hoover and the bush famile gang etc, 911 was staged, the obama election was pre arranged (to exploit american racism- and use it for fascistic purposes etc)....Our history book is so fulla lies (for example, it was Christian mobs that burned the great Library of Alexandria, not a buncha 'egyptsies' as the Man would have us believe!)....
mind you, the Islamic extremists are RIGHTWING boors, and thus need to be taken out like we took out that Ted Bundy fellow, but that's a lawnforcement operation- just like the '911' crime is, the stock market scam, the wars on iraq, libya, etcand shouldn't involve heavy weapons or torture etc

[azurnoir]

2. By the author Richard Landes: Romney Is Right on Culture and the Wealth of Nations

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443866404577566770697427382.html

thank hyou it's not often we see works by such authors being promoted here, sets a whole new standard it does

[Jefferson23]

3. Thanks, more candor from the poster, which is good to know. n/t

More here: snip* Israel and "Pallywood"

Landes is a strong supporter of the state of Israel, and a vigorous critic of what he considers anti-Israel propaganda in professedly objective news reports, and from supposedly impartial neutral bodies.

In particular, he denounces the "mainstream" press for uncritically repeating stories from Palestinian sources about civilian casualties from Israeli actions, even when these stories may be exaggerated, distorted, or false. Though he has never denied that Palestinian civilians have been killed and injured in Israeli operations, he has cited evidence that these casualties have been overstated for propaganda purposes.

He has coined the term "Pallywood" for the practice of filming staged funerals, casualties, and other evidence against Israel for the benefit of European and American news organizations.

He maintains two personal Web sites: "The Augean Stables" and "The Second Draft". "The Augean Stables" is a blog on anti-Israel media problems and related issues. (The title refers to the Fifth Labor of Hercules: clearing the immense manure piles in the stables of King Augeas.)

"The Second Draft" is exclusively devoted to anti-Israel propaganda in the news, with essays, articles, and archived video. Landes has been particularly concerned with the alleged shooting of Muhammad al-Durrah by Israeli troops, and the inflammatory reporting of the incident by French television.

Landes has also helped establish Understanding the Goldstone report, a multi-authored Website devoted to exposing and refuting alleged inaccuracies in the Goldstone report on Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip.

Landes now blogs at the Daily Telegraph, where his main theme is that the same people - journalists, academics, and politicians - who have misinformed the West on the dangers of Islam have also misinformed them on the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that mistaking these conflicts puts modern democratic culture at risk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Landes

[bemildred]

4. One thinks of Orly Taitz.

The Palestinians are a belligerent army, aggressive interlopers. Why can't people see?

[azurnoir]

5. yes indeed why oh why does no one see the truth especially that interlopers part

[bemildred]

8. I find Landes kind of amusing.

He thinks ideas are like Legos, you just plug them together, and if it fits, it must be true.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Ugh, where to begin on that one?

The fact that he published in the Torygraph should have been a clue.

But it's hardly the first time that a right-winger has been quoted here, and yes, it happens on both sides.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Perhaps so, but not exactly the manipulative and gullible journalists whom he means

It is the right-wing politicians and journalists, who use Islamism as a justification for war; for restrictions on civil liberties; as a new excuse for racism and anti-immigrant bigotry (often against people who aren't even Muslims, let alone Islamists); for bigotry against all who are not Christians; and in general for supporting the Right against the Left, who can tempt decent but ill-informed people into assuming that Islamism must have something good or OK about it, or so many evil people wouldn't be against it.

Of course the Islamists are as right wing as anyone.

Perhaps, on the other hand, the people who have done the most to turn people against Islamism - though this certainly was not their intention - were the people who shot Malala.