Well said Dr. Rusin.
Anger is a motivating emotion in war, not a guide to action. If I may quote the Communist physicist P. M. S. Blackett, “Wars are not fought on gusts of emotion.” Our government has chosen not to motivate by anger as was done in WWII. I think this is turning out to be a mistake. We are showing ourselves incompetent at the information war, or propaganda war if you will. Two examples should explain it.
Iran is a key enemy in this war. No one will be safe until the Ayatollahs are overthrown, not us, not Middle Easterners, not the Iranians themselves. A simple ploy to help discredit them among Muslims would be to refer to the Ayatollahs in all American public statements as “The Pharaohs of Tehran”. “Pharaoh” has an extremly pejoritive connotation in Islam, being the ultimate hypocrite and evildoer. This is a small thing but I think it would help.
We should also be publicizing through Arabic and Persian language broadcasts the vicious atrocities our enemies committed in Fallujah and Baqubah when they briefly ruled those places. “This is the way the New Caliphate will govern you. Is that what you want?” should be our question. We should harp on this continuously, adding more examples as we find them. We can see in Anbar Province how the actual experience of being ruled by these radical Islamists disgusts the people ruled. It is a weakness in our enemies we can exploit, if we have the will and intelligence to do so.
We must pit our big idea against our enemy’s. His is a worldwide caliphate where Muslims will swagger around lording it over wretched dhimmis (the rest of us). It is an attractive and flattering self image for Muslims. We must pit against it our idea, liberty and prosperity in a modern world. So far we are not doing a good job of that.
