On Point: Al-Baghdadi's Death as Counterterror Information Warfare
Strategy Page: On Point: Al-Baghdadi's Death as Counterterror Information Warfare
Quote:
by Austin Bay
October 30, 2019
What a shame Washington political and media elites couldn't briefly halt their uncivil domestic political brawl to applaud a victory over the world's most vicious international terrorist organization, the Islamic State group of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
A more unified and strategically thoughtful reaction to ISIS commander, mass rapist, savage torturer, mass murderer and slaver Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's justified slaying would have magnified the effects of the Pentagon's military operation by sending a clear and powerful message with moral weight and what strategists call "deterrence value" to challenge terrorist propaganda appeals.
My obituary sketch of al-Baghdadi's documented atrocities is the spine of the deterrent message. ISIS agitprop internet videos extolled these crimes as proof of the group's invincibility.
I was going to risk overquoting, but I found myself wanting to copy and paste the entire thing, which is a no-no for a Copyright article, so go RTWT.
(Colonel Bay might not mind if we did, but I'd rather not risk getting P-F in trouble.)