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Iraqi shark rumor blames Americans

Every once in a while a story surfaces of Iraqis suspecting Americans of offbeat or bizarre feats. We should never underestimate suspicions, because many Iraqis (and others) sincerely believe in them.

The latest is the report of a shark caught in an irrigation canal by the Euphrates River, 160 miles from the sea. Reuters reported from Nassiria on October 30 that a man and his two sons were fishing in the river and discovered they had caught a two-meter-long shark in their net.

According to Reuters, "Locals blamed the US military for the shark's presence.

"Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a '75 percent chance' Americans had put the shark in the water. 'This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter,' said fisherman Hatim Karim."

While it's easy to brush off such rumors, such suspicions are dangerous to US interests. Left unaddressed, they tend to multiply and often cannot be refuted by reason or facts. Iraq and many Arab societies (as well as much of humanity as a whole) tend to place great faith in rumors, whose impact is difficult to counteract.

Westerners who blame their own governments unwittingly aid the terrorists, former extremist says

Westerners who blame their own governments for the rise of Islamist extremism are unwittingly doing "propaganda work" for the terrorists themselves. So says a former Islamist extremist in Britain, who blames militant ideologues who seek an Islamist state in what they see as a world of unbelievers.

"By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us," the former Islamist extremist, Hassan Butt, writes in the Daily Mail.

"More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

"The attempts to cause mass destruction in London and Glasgow are so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that they are likely to have been carried out by my former peers.

"And as with previous terror attacks, people are again saying that violence carried out by Muslims is all to do with foreign policy.

"For example, on Saturday on Radio 4's Today programme, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone [pictured], said: 'What all our intelligence shows about the opinions of disaffected young Muslims is the main driving force is not Afghanistan, it is mainly Iraq.'

"I left the British Jihadi Network in February 2006 because I realised that its members had simply become mindless killers. But if I were still fighting for their cause, I'd be laughing once again.

"And though many British extremists are angered by the deaths of fellow Muslim across the world, what drove me and many others to plot acts of extreme terror within Britain and abroad was a sense that we were fighting for the creation of a revolutionary worldwide Islamic state that would dispense Islamic justice."

Operational absurdity

The Army is making it rough on those of us who advocate a stronger military role in the war of ideas. As if it wasn't hard enough already to get the truth out about the war effort and generate public support for a truly noble effort, the Army is making it even harder.

"Operational security" is the supposed reason behind the latest brilliant stroke in the war on terror: A total ban on emails, blogging and other electronic communication from the troops in the field. Unless, of course, those messages are censored first.

There's a lot to be said for cracking down on the sending of messages, images and other electronic data that harm the war effort. And certainly there's a huge security concern about undisciplined disclosure of information. But World War II ended before many of our generals were even born, and it's time for the military to understand the age of the wired grunt and adapt accordingly.

And implement far more rigorous counterintelligence procedures and practices, which is a crux of the real problem.

With few exceptions, the military's IO and public affairs policies are primitive enough as they are, even though we have all the technology and human talent we need. Mindless, blanket censorship of all electronic communications isn't going to help things.

British poll shows optimistic Iraqis

Despite everything, most Iraqis polled now say that life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, and they are optimistic about the future of their country.

A British poll of 5,000 Iraqis shows that only 27 percent think the country is in a civil war, while 67 percent do not. One in four reports a relative murdered, one in four reports a relative kidnaped, and one in three has a relative who has fled the country.

Yet most Iraqis describe themselves as optimistic; by two to one they express confidence that the surge is working, and more than half are confident that the situation will improve after coalition forces leave. The Sunday Times of London carries the story. For more details about the poll, click here.