[Peace-discuss] US propaganda for war in Afghanistan

Stuart Levy slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu
Sun Mar 28 14:47:12 CDT 2010


On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 01:02:25PM -0500, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> [The point of course is to avoid any discussion of the why the US is 
> spending so much money and killing so many people in Afghanistan.  --CGE]

Well, the (CIA's) aim is to get the job done, right?
As when Norm Coleman told the people of Minnesota he would Get the Job Done,
his opponent Paul Wellstone responded Yes, but get it done for whom?


Most interesting bits in this article for me are the CIA assessments of
French and German public opinion.  "80% opposed but apathetic", and,
"when [opinion poll] respondents were reminded that President Obama
himself had asked for increased deployments to Afghanistan, 
their support for granting this request increased dramatically,
from 4 to 15 percent among French respondents and from 7 to 13 percent
among Germans."

Wow.  After being reminded of Obama's request, the supportive
fraction of the population *increased dramatically* to ...
less than one person in six?  Good for them.

But it makes you wonder whether the CIA report writers are stretching
the point when they talk about "[t]he confidence of the French and
German publics in President Obama's ability to handle foreign affairs
in general and Afghanistan in particular" -- how much confidence is that, now?
Let's hope it is not much, and the numbers seem to back that up.




> 	CIA paper reveals plans to manipulate European opinion on Afghanistan
> 	By Daniel Tencer
> 	Friday, March 26th, 2010 -- 3:41 pm
>
> 'Out-of-the-box' CIA think tank proposes concerns over women's rights, fear 
> of terrorism as ways to boost support for Afghan war
>
> Evidently spooked by the collapse of the Dutch government over the 
> country's involvement in Afghanistan, the CIA has put together a strategy 
> proposal to prevent what it fears could be a "precipitous" collapse of 
> support for the war in Afghanistan among European allies.
>
> A document marked "confidential / not for foreign eyes," posted to the 
> Wikileaks Web site, suggests strategies to manipulate European public 
> opinion on the war, particularly in France and Germany.
>
> The document doesn't propose any direct methods by which the CIA could 
> achieve this -- there are no references to planting propaganda in the 
> press, for example -- but it does lay out what it sees as the key talking 
> points to changing hearts and minds on the war. Among its proposals, the 
> policy paper suggests playing up the plight of Afghan women to French 
> audiences, as the French public has shown concern for women's rights in 
> Afghanistan.
>
> For the German audience, the document suggests a measure of fear-mongering 
> about the possible fallout of NATO failure in Afghanistan. 
> "Germany’s exposure to terrorism, opium, and refugees might help to 
> make the war more salient to skeptics," the document asserts.
> Story continues below...
>
> Read the report here, courtesy of Wikileaks.
>
> The policy paper was prepared by a group called the "CIA Red Cell," which 
> describes itself as having been tasked "with taking a pronounced 
> 'out-of-the-box' approach that will provoke thought and offer an 
> alternative viewpoint on the full range of analytic issues."
>
> "The fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan 
> demonstrates the fragility of European support for the NATO-led ISAF 
> mission," the document states. "Some NATO states, notably France and 
> Germany, have counted on public apathy about Afghanistan to increase their 
> contributions to the mission, but indifference might turn into active 
> hostility if spring and summer fighting results in an upsurge in military 
> or Afghan civilian casualties."
>
> The CIA report notes that 80 percent of the French and German public are 
> opposed to the war, but offers a loophole: Public apathy, which has allowed 
> European leaders to extend and broaden their involvement in Afghanistan 
> despite deep opposition.
>
> But "if some forecasts of a bloody summer in Afghanistan come to pass, 
> passive French and German dislike of their troop presence could turn into 
> active and politically potent hostility," the report states.
>
> GET OBAMA INVOLVED
>
> The CIA Red Cell points out that President Obama continues to enjoy popular 
> support in Europe at levels he has not seen in the US in months. The report 
> suggests getting the president involved in selling the Afghanistan war to 
> Europeans.
>
> "The confidence of the French and German publics in President 
> Obama’s ability to handle foreign affairs in general and Afghanistan 
> in particular suggest that they would be receptive to his direct 
> affirmation of their importance to the ISAF mission—and sensitive to 
> direct expressions of disappointment in allies who do not help," the report 
> states.
>
> The report notes that "when [opinion poll] respondents were reminded that 
> President Obama himself had asked for increased deployments to Afghanistan, 
> their support for granting this request increased dramatically, from 4 to 
> 15 percent among French respondents and from 7 to 13 percent among 
> Germans."
>
> To change French minds, the CIA Red Cell proposes linking the Afghanistan 
> war to the effort to improve women's rights in Afghanistan. It also 
> proposes pointing out that the Afghanistan mission is more popular in 
> Afghanistan than it is in Europe, at least according to the statistics 
> cited in the report.
>
> "Afghan women could serve as ideal messengers in humanizing the ISAF role 
> in combating the Taliban because of women’s ability to speak 
> personally and credibly about their experiences under the Taliban, their 
> aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory," the 
> report asserts.
>
> "Highlighting Afghans’ broad support for ISAF could underscore the 
> mission’s positive impact on civilians. About two-thirds of Afghans 
> support the presence of ISAF forces in Afghanistan, according to a reliable 
> ... poll conducted in December 2009," the report states.
>
> For the German public, the message should be somewhat different, the report 
> states. "Messages that dramatize the consequences of a NATO defeat for 
> specific German interests could counter the widely held perception that 
> Afghanistan is not Germany’s problem. For example, messages that 
> illustrate how a defeat in Afghanistan could heighten Germany’s 
> exposure to terrorism, opium, and refugees might help to make the war more 
> salient to skeptics."
>
> Numerous news reports in recent years have suggested that the CIA is more 
> deeply involved in the Afghanistan war than it has been in previous wars. 
> For instance, when news broke that seven CIA agents had been killed in a 
> suicide bombing at a forward operating base, it highlighted the fact that 
> the CIA has been operating essentially as a branch of the military in 
> Afghanistan, running the unmanned aerial drone strikes against the Taliban.
>
> That suicide bombing also highlighted the difficulties the agency faces in 
> getting a grasp on the situation in the Central Asian country. CIA 
> operatives had believed Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the suicide 
> bomber, was willing to work as an informant for them. They were apparently 
> so completely unaware of his status as a double agent that they had 
> prepared a birthday party for him in advance of his arrival, when he 
> proceeded to blow himself up.
>
> http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0326/cia-paper-reveals-strategies-manipulate-european-opinion-afghanistan/
>
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