Pentagon declares war on internet combat videos

[armchair_jihad]

'The Pentagon is asking US soldiers in Iraq to stop posting private combat videos on to the internet amid fears that they could be regarded as anti-Arab.

Many of the digital clips feature explosions, gunfire and even dead bodies, with the images often set to a soundtrack of rock ballads, rap or heavy metal music.

Defence officials believe they could be interpreted as portraying the military as unsympathetic to Arabs and obsessed with barbarism.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/26/wtapes26.xml

'The Pentagon was woken up to the potential negative impact of the phenomenon by film of a marine singing a song he had composed called Haji Girl, in which a US soldier falls in love with an Iraqi woman and is then ambushed by her family when he is taken to meet them.

It was criticised last month in the US by the Council on American-Islamic relations, which was outraged by its mocking of the Arabic language'


Personally speaking I rather liked the song.

 

[Chief_Joseph]

There's gonna be fight if they try this. There are some high ranking officers posting stuff. Besides, most of the videos are just of regular patrols and of interactions with Iraqi forces and civilians. The ones that are being referred to are often made by civvies who snatch combat footage online and smash it together into a "badass iraq video". These recordings by the troops are going to change the way war is chronicalled.

I say the defenders of the right free speach and expression are entitled to utilize that right every once and awhile. They're actually using this avenue to share the personal stories, their successes, their losses, their joys, their frustrations. I think those pencil pushers should take a hard look at it.

 

[armchair_jihad]

Quite Chief, History should belong to the 'Victors' not a bunch of bloggers with high end cell phones.

 

[chrisg46]

Although i agree with free speech and what chief says, i do see the point of what the pentagon are saying. Some of the ones i have seen do seem to glorify gruesome death. Plus there is the whole risk of "incriminating" yourself as several brit soldiers have seen recently. All it takes is for one newspaper to spin it the way they want to...
would we appreciate videos of beheadings, shootings etc set to "Die MF Die"?

Just my thoughts....

 

[Chief_Joseph]

Although i agree with free speech and what chief says, i do see the point of what the pentagon are saying. Some of the ones i have seen do seem to glorify gruesome death. Plus there is the whole risk of "incriminating" yourself as several brit soldiers have seen recently. All it takes is for one newspaper to spin it the way they want to...
would we appreciate videos of beheadings, shootings etc set to "Die MF Die"?

Just my thoughts....

I've seen those ones your referring to, but that's hardly most of it. There's ALOT of diversity in this group. Al Queda uses the internet, if some marine wants to post a video of his trip to a local village to hand out candy, the pentagon should f*ck off. Hell, if there's combat in it they should f*ck off. After all, they're the ones fighting, NOT pentagon officials. My friend had his milblog shut-down while he was at Camp Anaconda, but the fight from friends and family back home got it back up.

 

[TheLordFlasheart]

portraying the military as unsympathetic to Arabs and obsessed with barbarism

Err thats US Foreign Policy isnt it?

 

[civpop42]

The victorious Iraqi insurgency combat movies are in my view really fuelling the Jihadi cause. The serialisation over the past few years of very visible coalition casualties must be having an effect on recruiting figures. The insurgency must grow with the apparent ease of killing americans they watch on film. The current wave of coalition videos on the net are of a very high recording standard. This leads me to believe that the psy ops people are trying to fight back. Or some wannabe film director come soldiers are so infuriated about the quality of editing/general cinematography in the insurgency videos. Maybe the US combatants are fighting back this propoganda with some high res dolby 5.1 surround sound U.S. stylee best of the best combat videos.

 

[Pillager]

America - I want the middle east to have the right to free speech
America - You can't use that right to free speech if it contradicts the official government line.

1984 - You can say what you want, so long as big brother agrees.
N. Korea - Private publishing is allowed provided the censors allow it.
China - E-Blogging will be moderated by the peoples party.

 

[civpop42]

!984 a book with a constant war in Eurasia?