Media-Savvy Terrorism

Heather Robinson has an interesting piece on terrorism and the media:

Modern terrorism is conceived for the cameras. From the slaying of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972, to the public parade, with bound hands and blindfolds, of U.S. hostages by their captors in Iran, to the recent taped beheadings of civilians in Iraq, terrorism has been designed for media consumption.

Thus insurgent terrorism in Iraq is calculated, not only to devastate its victims but also to make the news, thereby furthering the goals, political and ideological, of its perpetrators and those who direct them.

Consider the recent pattern of terrorist attacks in Iraq. From Aug. 25 to Sept. 4 - immediately before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, when every major media outlet was saturated with images of the incoming storm, displaced persons, or the remains of a deluged city - comparatively few U.S. troops and Iraqis were killed, and there were no major suicide bombings.

Then, on Sept. 14, just as Hurricane Katrina coverage had begun to ebb, insurgents unleashed a storm of their own, in the heart of Baghdad's Kadhimiya district with a massive attack, murdering 114 Iraqis. Coordinated suicide bombings that day brought total deaths to 150. Al-Qaeda in Iraq also chose that day to announce that it had launched an all-out nationwide suicide bombing campaign. In the next four days, insurgents killed more than 260 Iraqis in suicide bombings and other attacks.

If you plot out the number and timing of terrorist attacks in Iraq, it is clear that the 11-day lull before, during, and after Katrina was no accident. Neither was the ferocious resurgence of major coordinated terrorist attacks throughout the latter half of September. Katrina dominated headlines throughout the end of August and early September. If ever the backers of terrorism wished to take a breather, regroup, and plan the next round of sensational attacks so they would be certain to make headlines, that would have been the time.

...Can anyone still perceive these media-savvy criminals, who target the innocent to inflict terror, pain, and death as a means of manipulating public opinion, as "freedom fighters"? Wake up. Such fundamental misunderstanding, and such eagerness to blame our own imperfect leaders rather than the true culprits, are what the terrorists are counting on.

Well said. Read the entire thing.