The real big story in the Middle East

Austin Bay:

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At the moment, the truly biggest story on the planet is democratic political change in the Middle East, beginning with Iraq. It’s huge history, and a looming political disaster for tyrants and terrorists. When Western audiences decide that this is the real news of our era — and it is that — Al Qaeda will be dealt a death blow.

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Terrorists can be a very small group of people or a politically weak organization. What makes the small and anonymous appear powerful and strong? In the 21st century, intense media coverage magnifies the terrorists’ capabilities. This suggests that winning the global war against Islamist terror ultimately means accomplishing two things: denying the terrorists’ weapons of mass destruction and curbing what is currently Al Qaeda’s greatest strategic capability: media magnification and occasional media enhancement of its bombing campaigns and political theatrics.
Part of the terrorist success in its media campaign is the ignorance of most in the media of what is a militarily significant attack. For the most part they haven't a clue. To most of the media even failed attacks are significant because they happened, not because they failed. Thus you have the heavy breathing over the failed attacks on Abu Ghraid and Qaim, using vehicle borne human bombs. If these attacks were so important, why hasn't the enemy tried to do it again?

The Baghdad hotel correspondents are a problem that needs to be addressed. Everyone of them should be required to spend six months with frontline units as an embed before they get a chance to call room service and serve up more misleading stories about the war in Iraq. When the US and the Iraqis are successful in suppressing failed attacks, these guys don't even notice.

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