[sonny]

I just don't get it:confused: .......How is it that with our obviously superior technology ,we are not getting the message out clearly?
I find it hard to believe that we can't shut down their communications ....what do you think?.....something smells!

[TheOtherOne]

When things first started I remember them talking about how they were going to be jamming TV and Radio signals and broadcasting our messages.

Maybe they decided that looked to much like we were taking over the country instead of liberating... Kind of like how we can't fly U.S. flags on any of their stuff.

[Art Eatman]

It's less the broadcasting into Iraq than the amount of broadcasting by other Arab nations throughout the area.

One thing we cannot legally do is interfere with broadcasts within the region. And we're apparently not interfering with Baghdad's TV.

A datum I read some 20 or 30 years back has to do with radio transmissions in the Mideast and Africa. (A lot less TV over there than in the developed nations.) The radios only will receive a very limited number of frequencies--as in only the governments' stations. In many of the African nations, radios are free-but only receive the one or two government stations.

IOW, it's very difficult to get our side of the story to the Arab equivalent of Joe Sixpack.

[Lord Grey Boots]

I think the US gov't should encourage sales of broad band radio receivers and Satellite TV receivers in Iraq. And I hope the new government will push for the establishment of 3 or 4 (at least) independent TV stations.


Hmmm What's "Fox News" in Arabic?

[Art Eatman]

From a profitability standpoint, satellite TV oughta sell like hotcakes...

:), Art

[Double Naught Spy]

sonny, what makes you think we aren't getting the message out clearly? Even if we get the message out clearly, there is no reason to believe that the people of Iraq will necessarily believe the messages.

As for the obviously superior technology, that may not be all that salient. No doubt broadcasts are already being made into Iraq by coalition forces. However, all the TV and radio broadcasting in the world won't make a hill of beans difference if the people who are intended to receive such transmissions don't actually have access to TVs or radios.

Think about it like this. Even with all of our technology on the battlefield, many of the coalition forces really have no idea what their fellow forcing are doing elsewhere in Iraq most of the time. Several soldiers have commented that their knowledge base for what is going on elsewhere actually comes from sources like CNN.

Now consider the Iraqi positions. They have soldiers in the field who don't even have radios, much less access to a TV and CNN. So all that technology in broadcasting is sort of wasted on a 3rd world-type country that doesn't have a lot of access radio and TV. Why do you think we have been dropping millions of leaflets if we thought the TV/radio angle was working?

[boing]

I wonder how much credibility the Iraqi proganda machine and Al Jazeera are expending by having Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf on the air saying the coalition is near defeat, while simultaneously every Western news agency shows live footage of US tanks rolling into Baghdad.

Maybe none, and maybe it doesn't matter in this Iraqi campaign.

But in the aftermath, Al Jazeera (and others) are still going to have a voice in places like Iran and Syria. Maybe by letting them have their say now and look foolish, we're helping to reduce their effectiveness as a regional propaganda tool in the future.

(Assuming anyone is getting the "alternative" message.)

[Blackhawk]

I don't think it matters.

[Coronach]

The nice thing about truth is that it eventually kicks the snot out of fiction. Every time.

Mike

[Double Naught Spy]

ah, but it is how that snot-kicking gets described, reported, and recirculated that gets remembered. There are often more than one version of the 'truth' with each version told very honestly but being quite different based on the perspectives of those telling the story.

[Leatherneck]

As Mike and Blackhawk alluded to, "Ground truth" overrides the limited exposure the "Arab street" has to broadcast media.

I didn't know there were international conventions on what actions we can take to step on Iraqi broadcasts. Seems kinda "nice" in the middle of a war...

TC
TFL Survivor