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American propaganda in Afghanistan

18:20 / 03.01.02

For information's sake(and the redundantly stated, admittedly, self serving hope that people will have interesting commentary): An
article on the leaflets the US has been dropping in Afghanistan.

[ 03-01-2002: Message edited by: passer ]

20:36 / 03.01.02

interesting, thanks for the link... but not exactly surprising or that bad, and consistent with the propaganda that was used in the west as well

I'd be interested to see what sort of effect it actually had. I wonder if anyone ever reads these things?

07:47 / 04.01.02

quote:Originally posted by w1rebaby:
I'd be interested to see what sort of effect it actually had. I wonder if anyone ever reads these things?

I also would be interested to know how they were received. It's one thing to read a flier, it's a huge big step to acutally believe what's printed on it.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:09 / 04.01.02

This is something I've always wondered about leaflet drops and the like... if (say) the UK was invaded by (say) France (yup, I know I'm taking "hypothetical" to the limit here), and we were getting twatted, and a bunch of leaflets dropped on us telling us the French were cool, we were being bombed for our own good, whatever... would WE believe them?
And when the analogy is phrased in better terms than I'm able to come up with right now, my IDEAL answer is "hell no"... but I'm worried by REAL answer would be "I don't know".
And of course, it's kind of hard to measure the success of a campaign like that...

10:32 / 04.01.02

ok .. call me stupid for asking this..

but why are some of the leaflets in local dialect and some in english?

12:14 / 04.01.02

I rather like the bit about dropping radios, then issuing a radio broadcast telling people where to find them.

The landmine warning is also kinda handy. Possibly a little late in the day.

It's all a bit inconsistent, really, isn't it? I mean, one minute it's partnership of nations, America is your friend, and the next it's we will strike with overwhelming force. Also rather worrying is the use of racial stereotyping- don't help the Taliban, they are foreign Pakistani devils! as opposed to, erm, american foreign devils.

Stoatie- I think all the French would need to do is drop examples of their clearly zuperior Franch cuisine, n'est pas? Zurrender and we will gif you boeuf en croute! with a zuperior vin de l'annee quatre-vingt-onze. eef you're lucky. I think they're trying to exploit the uncertainty and the fragmentary nature of the various factions.

(apologies for my appalling accent.)

15:33 / 04.01.02

l'il bit more
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/04/ret.bin.laden.leaflets/index.html

quote:Some analysts say the altered photograph will not play well in some parts of the Muslim world, where there is already suspicion of the United States.

Asked whether the leaflet could be used by some to say the United States is willing to doctor or make up things -- as has been alleged about the videotape found in Afghanistan by the United States -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had not thought about the possibility

[ 04-01-2002: Message edited by: MJ-12 ]

15:58 / 04.01.02

Man, I could've done a better Photoshop job than that.

16:46 / 04.01.02

Or just hired Mahir.

13:55 / 05.01.02

...guess this would be on the propaganda tip or more or less the covering of one's tracks...

Trolling the Web for Afghan Dead

Notable quoting:

quote:Among his more serious allegations is the accusation that the U.S. government has tried to create a news blackout in Afghanistan. In October, Washington bought exclusive rights to all the commercial satellite images of Afghanistan and pressured the independent Al-Jazeera television station to tone down anti-American rhetoric.

The station scoffed at the request and a month later, U.S. missiles destroyed Al-Jazeera's Kabul offices. Herold and Al-Jazeera officials allege the hit was a deliberate attempt to snuff out negative news reports, an accusation a Department of Defense spokesman denied.

...so there's some "control" issues...

quote:"We did not start this war," Rumsfeld said. "So understand, responsibility for every single casualty in this war, whether they're innocent Afhgans or innocent Americans, rests at the feet of al-Qaeda and the Taliban."

...last time I used the "he started it first" line, I got grounded. Gonna go steal some toys from Toys R' Us now since my parents didn't do the right thing and buy them for me when they should have...