Islamists cannot directly make Americans form hostile judgments regarding legitimacy of their cause and destroy their political will: “work in America…in destroying Western Civilization from within” necessitates “‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their [own] hands” (Muslim Brotherhood)
Islamists cannot directly make Americans form hostile judgments regarding legitimacy of their cause and destroy their political will: “work in America…in destroying Western Civilization from within” necessitates “‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their [own] hands” (Muslim Brotherhood)
Influence/coopt critical nodes with cultural knowledge of, social proximity to,
and institutional capacity to mould opinion; possess ideological power to
reinforce/shatter American perceptions of the legal and moral rectitude of the war
and to defend/destroy American political will
(1) media and journalists
(2) government and public officials
(3) legal academy
Media chooses what to show and not show, how to frame it, what to call it (Abu Ghraib, human shielding)
Political leaders shape subjective perceptions of LOAC compliance: affirmations of LOAC in/fidelity undermine/reinforce US political will
Senator Obama: U.S.: “just air raiding villages and killing civilians”
Senator John Kerry thundered that “[U.S.] soldiers [are] terrorizing children [and] women.”
Rep. John Murtha accused U.S. Marines of “killing innocent civilians in cold blood
Academics regarded as neutral arbiters dedicated to pursuit of knowledge and above political
Academics regarded as neutral arbiters dedicated to pursuit of knowledge and above political
cultural fray
Legal academy: cohort with greatest substantive LOAC expertise and unconstrained freedom to make authoritative judgments on the legality of every issue in U.S. military ops in war against Islamism
(1) Centrality of law in public life, (2) special warrant to “say what the law is”, (3) social power garners special opportunities to articulate, and implement, solutions to the problems they perceive
Lay persons ill-equipped to challenge and usually deferential before superior, putatively neutral knowledge.
Law profs are an aristocracy with special influence over the theorization and transformation of law sitting atop a stratified profession central to the administration of a rule-of-law republic with free access to media
Law profs enter the battlefield of ideas far better-armed than most but not as neutrals: they carry political, ideological, and psychological dispositions that color their interpretations of what law is and should be; create impression of unassailable wisdom that must be heeded by faithful adherents to the rule-of-law
Law profs seized power to determine what legal conclusions may be expressed w/o transgressing ROL
two hundred U.S./allied experts in LOAC possess authority to in/validate U.S./Western claims about LOAC and multiply or denature the combat power of Islamist PSYOPs
pronouncements on illegality of Western resort to force and conduct in battle in publications and media loads combat power into Islamist PSYOPs campaign against Western political will
Two aspects of critical LOACA scholars [“CLOACA”] operational employment of PSYOPs:
(1) support Islamist military ops and instill doubt, temerity, and cost-consciousness (combat support)
(2) attack American legitimacy as a rule-of-law nation and collapse American willingness to continue to support what they are led to believe is an unlawful, unwinnable war (combat operations)
(1) LOAC restrictions on Islamists waived to unilateral advantage (CS)
(1) LOAC restrictions on Islamists waived to unilateral advantage (CS)
(2) Western states face more rigorous compliance standards (CS)
(3) captured Islamist militants restored to the battlefield (CS)
(4) Islamist jihad is a reaction to valid grievances against U.S. foreign policy (CA)
(5) civilian casualties/Abu Ghraib prove injustice of the Western cause (CA)
(6) LE suffices and military action is a gross over-reaction (CA)
(7) U.S.-led interventions are illegal aggression per se (CA)
(8) U.S. engaged in pattern of war crimes a la Nazi Germany (CA)
(9) U.S. criminality breeds more terrorists and threatens ROL (CA)
(10) U.S. leaders should be prosecuted for crimes that make us less safe (CA)
(11) dissenters merit professional condemnation/prosecution to shame or compel them into silence (CA)
CLOACA tilts battlefield against U.S. forces, paralyzes U.S. military commanders, constrains U.S. military power, enhances danger to U.S. troops, and potentiates cognitive effects of Islamist military operations
rather than serving as neutral seeker of truth, CLOACA mustered into Islamist order of battle as a Fifth Column to direct its combat power against U.S. political will: most important weapon in Islamist arsenal and celebrated by Islamists as a portent of U.S. weakness and coming triumph of Islamism.
jus in bello scholarship supports military/cognitive effects of Islamist military ops by attenuating utility of counterforce
jus in bello scholarship supports military/cognitive effects of Islamist military ops by attenuating utility of counterforce
