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| Monday, 13 December 2004 |
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In modern warfare, information is a weapon by Charles Hoskinson WASHINGTON (AFP) When a US soldier bound for Iraq complained to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about armor protection for his unit's vehicles, the encounter made headlines around the world. But when another US soldier who participated in that "town meeting" Wednesday at a US base in Kuwait saw media coverage of the event, he posted an essay on his Internet blog calling the coverage exaggerated and misleading. Such is the nature of information in modern war. Experts say technology has outpaced the ability of combatants to control the news flowing from the battlefield. And military and political leaders have learned that influencing how people perceive the war has become as important as the physical clash of armies. "We've got to come to grips with what it means when people can communicate directly into the information domain," said Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, chief of public affairs for the US Army. "I think there is an emerging understanding that there is a need for a culture of engagement. We have to tell our own story." The global war against Islamist militants sparked by the September 11, 2001, attacks is in part a clash of ideas, and the United States is not adequately prepared to fight on that level, a Pentagon advisory panel concluded in September. The Defense Science Board recommended President George W. Bush adopt a single communications strategy for the US government, and finance research to develop appropriate messages and methods. "Strategic communication is a vital component of US national security. It is in crisis, and it must be transformed with a strength of purpose that matches our commitment to diplomacy, defense, intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security," the report said. At the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, the US military sought to improve relations with the news media, which had soured after the Vietnam War, by inviting reporters to embed with US troops. The aim was to avoid what had happened in Vietnam, where US troops won many of the battles, but lost the war for public support. The Pentagon, recognizing the growing importance of global media sources, invited foreign news organizations such as the Qatar-based Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Jazeera to participate. A Rand Corporation study released Tuesday found that the embedding system in general had produced the most positive outcomes for both the news media and the military, while noting that technological advances rendered obsolete the US military's previous doctrine of controlling access. Advances in satellite communications and wireless Internet technology now allow reporters to file directly from the battlefield in real time. And they are not alone - anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can do the same. "There is no way to control the storyline anymore," said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Not even the media are immune. After Rumsfeld was widely portrayed as having been put on the defensive by soldiers' questions in Kuwait, Republican party activist and now army Sergeant Chris Missick disputed that perception in his Internet blog from Kuwait. "Let there be no doubt, this was not a hostile crowd eager to catch the secretary of defense off guard by grilling him with questions he has never had to answer," he wrote. The nature of the conflict since the fall of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in April 2003 also makes information crucial. "Fighting the information war is every bit as important as taking things street by street in Iraq, said Robert Kaplan, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly who spent time with US troops in Fallujah, scene of some of the most intense fighting against Iraqi insurgents. "The minute a war becomes unconventional ... the victor becomes the person or the team that masters the story or the narrative," Kaplan said. The importance of winning the narrative can be seen in the story of alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. For US officials the story spiraled out of control after photographs of naked prisoners in sexually humiliating positions were broadcast in April and distributed worldwide. |
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