PoliticalWarfare.org

100 million people laugh at Achmed the Dead Terrorist

Circulating on YouTube since 2007, the 10-minute ventriloquist routine of Jeff Dunham and his "Achmed the Dead Terrorist" has now surpassed 100,000,000 views. The skit cleverly mocks Islamist terrorists and suicide bombers, and pokes fun at others as well. Dunham lampoons the enemy in a light-hearted, naughty way - a good model for taking down the enemy by laughing at him and his cause. Dunham's skit also adds a fun twist on the supposed terrorist reward of 72 virgins in the afterlife. Take a look. Also, visit Dunham's website at www.jeffdunham.com for more Achmed the Dead Terrorist videos and other funny stuff.

Preview of farcical look at home-grown jihadists

Here's a first look at the upcoming British film that makes fun of home-grown jihadist terrorists. The Four Lions, which I wrote about last month, premiered a few weeks ago at the Sundance Film Festival. Writer-director Chris Morris brilliantly researched Islamist extremism and discovered a lot to laugh at. He's bringing it to us in his comedy. Take a look at the dark, quiet humor in this short clip.

Early reviewers call The Four Lions:

• "an outrageous farce about a quartet of numbskull Islamic terrorists in the north of England,"
• "both laugh-out-loud funny and as serious as a bullet through your artery," and
• "daring and potentially offensive . . . it seems certain to be labeled anti-Islamic and irresponsible."

Only terrorist fronts like CAIR and Muslim Brotherhood fronts like ISNA would call it anti-Islamic, as the movie parodies extremism, and not Islam. But then, to CAIR and ISNA, both are one and the same.

I can't wait to see it!

The Infidel: Coming soon to a (British) theater near you

Here's the trailer to David Baddiel's upcoming comedy The Infidel, discussed on this page a few weeks ago. The movie is about a British Muslim with Islamist fundamentalist relatives who discovers he was adopted after being born to Jewish parents.

Finally! Comedies about jihad

It's way past time for us to stop being terrorized by Islamist terrorists. The best way to defeat them is to laugh at them while our troops and Predators hunt them down.

With the politically incorrect exceptions of Team America, brought to us from the folks at South Park, David Zucker's An American Carol and one or two others, Hollywood has been slow to help the world laugh at Islamist terrorists. Even then, "Team America" was really making fun of the whole war on terror itself, and "An American Carol" targeted American left-wing moonbats and political correctness in general.

Across the pond, British filmmakers are doing what should have been done long ago. They have set their sights on Islamist extremists specifically, and submitted them to a merciless lampooning.

"Four Lions," a comedy about jihad, premieres January 23 at the Sundance Film Festival. The film mocks British-born Islamic terrorists. Chris Morris, the evil genius behind the UK's Channel 4 satire "Brass Eye," wrote the movie.

Here's a wonderful synopsis of "Four Lions" from a sneak preview, showing that Morris really gets it. See for yourself:

In three years of research, Chris Morris has spoken to terrorism experts, imams, police, secret services and hundreds of Muslims. Even those who have trained and fought jihad report the frequency of farce. At training camps young jihadis argue about honey, cry for their mums, shoot each other's feet off, chase snakes and get thrown out for smoking. A minute into his martyrdom video, a would-be bomber looks puzzled and says "what was the question again?" On millennium eve, five jihadis set out to ram a US warship. They slipped their boat into the water and carefully stacked it with explosives. It sank.

Terrorist cells have the same group dynamics as stag parties and five a side football teams. There is conflict, friendship, misunderstanding and rivalry. Terrorism is about ideology, but it's also about berks [idiots].

Four Lions is a funny, thrilling fictional story that illuminates modern British jihad with an insight beyond anything else in our culture. It plunges us beyond seeing these young men as unfathomably alien. It undermines the folly of just wishing them away or alienating the entire culture from which they emerge. It understands how terrorism relates to testosterone. It understands jihadis as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous. As Spinal Tap understood heavy metal and Dr Strangelove the Cold War, Four Lions understands modern British jihadis.

There's plenty of weird comic material in the terrorists' own reality. Think of the deranged wank-a-thon stuff our troops have captured on suicide bombers' computer drives. Or Osama bin Laden's instructions about how to go to the bathroom the Wahhabi way, Or al Qaeda's new butt bomb technology. Or the donkey videos from a Predator gun camera. Then on Christmas we saw the Keystone Kops antics of the Nigerian pantybomber. He couldn't blow up an airplane full of people over Detroit, but he did manage to burn off his testicles. Terrorism relates to testosterone.

These losers are a ripe target for being cut down to size with exposure and mockery. Their pride-filled, shame-laden culture will do them in if we simply exploit the opportunities.

Luckily, some British comedians have done it for us. Even if not always in good taste. I haven't seen these films yet and am not endorsing their content - I'm simply advocating the idea that we should be mocking the terrorists and their extremist allies, and praising those who give it a try.

The second British jihad comedy, called "The Infidel," is coming out in April. Comedian David Baddiel wrote the movie about what the Sunday Times of London describes as revolving around "a Muslim family man, played by Omid Djalili, the comedian, who suffers an identity crisis when he finds out that he was adopted after being born to Jewish parents." (The above images on this posting are from the film.)

"Much of the humor stems from his strained dealings with a bigoted fundamentalist relative called Arshad al-Masri who becomes the film's 'cartoon villain,'" according to The Times. "In one scene, Djalili's character refers to him as 'Arshad al-f****** Stalin,' while his four year-old daughter interrupts dinner in another scene by shouting: 'We are all members of Hezbollah now.'"

"I think this whole area is one that has been left barren comically because people are frightened of giving  offense," Baddiel tells The Times. "They are frightened about talking about Islam, about religion and about offending people. My instinct is, if something is not being talked about, then I want to examine it."

There's also a live performance playing in London - Jihad! The Musical - that rips the Islamist wackos a new one as well. "Terrorism is bullying on an international scale," the writers tell the Daily Telegraph. "We’re mocking these crazies with the tools we have. Others have different means of tackling terrorism."

A former United Nations advisor (whatever that is) is quoted in the Telegraph as saying that the comedians "are doing more than anything the Government is doing in counter-terrorism. A lot of what these terrorists say and claim to believe is actually pathetic and juvenile. It has to be exposed and comedians are the best people at doing this."

This is really exciting. I've been calling for this for years, making the argument about four years ago in Hollywood's hometown newspaper. It's nice to see the British setting a good example.

PS: I devote a whole chapter to the idea of ridiculing terrorists in my 2007 monograph, Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War. A lot of people in the US and British militaries and secret services read it and, I'm told, borrowed ideas from it. Pick up a copy today on Amazon.com.

Bottom photo from "Team America: World Police" (2004) (Hat tip on the British movies to LC)

Airport 'security' procedures we all know and love

Reason.tv has put out this parody advertisement about how the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) keeps us safe against terrorists in our airports. I have a lot of appreciation for the TSA's tough job and for the care with which TSA officials operate, but this ad gets to the heart of the problem.

Fault rests not with the individual officers who are doing what they were hired, instructed and trained to do, but with the TSA and Homeland Security leadership. In our politically correct world, it's preferable for our government to hassle every citizen, just as long agents don't single out those likeliest to be terrorists. Terrorist front groups whine about discrimination, and TSA leaders cave in to their demands and cringe at the thought of lawsuits and bad press. Government leaders pretend that ideology and behavior is not the problem. Like sheep, the innocent citizens meekly comply.

New: Parody of al Qaeda training video - CAUTION

Satirists are mocking al Qaeda for its latest "butt bomb" tactic. The People's Cube, a political humor website, today released a new video that ridicules the terrorist organization for sponsoring colon-deployed suicide bombers. In the feature, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's #2, is shown instructing followers on how to assemble, insert and detonate the bombs. This hilarious, patently offensive, clever video crosses the bounds of good taste and is definitely not for children.

The video is an excellent inspiration for Arabic-speaking satirists to make fun of al Qaeda, its leadership, and the young, pretty men who become suicide bombers. As I proposed on September 29, properly done in the right cultural context, the mockery can be used to humiliate al Qaeda members and deter young men from becoming assassins.

I'm posting the video not for laughs but for the educational purpose of showing how to weaponize ridicule against the enemy, and help turn al Qaeda into a laughingstock among Arabs and Muslims worldwide. Let's get some discussion going.

You can watch the video here (Facebook subscribers please click here or below on "View Original Post" to view the video on the PoliticalWarfare.org blog). Be forewarned - many people will find this video tasteless and hurtful to their sensitivities. Which is no doubt what the creators intended.

"Al-Zawahiri" speaks heavily-accented English that may be difficult to understand. Click here for a transcript.

'Mohammed Greenberg' - Ahmadinejad's psychological vulnerability

A closeup photo of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ID document shows that he has Jewish roots. That's no big deal in itself - except for the fact that the Iranian president is one of the world's foremost anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. Looks like the militant Islamist extremist is trying to compensate for some perceived inner inadequacy.

London's Daily Telegraph has the story. "A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots," the Telegraph reports. "A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver."

"By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections," says Ali Nourizadeh of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies. "He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society."

That's a great opportunity for us in the West. Here's Ahmadinejad's psychological soft spot - and we ought to be squeezing every shekel out of it.

Damian Thompson of the Telegraph sees the opportunities. Ahmadinejad, Thompson says in a blog entry based on the identity document, started life as Mahmoud Sabourjian, it seems – which is the Persian equivalent of being born Mohammed Greenberg." Now, how can we expose Ahmadinejad among his peers? Thompson has an idea:

"I mean, think about it: this venomous anti-Semite and Holocaust denier will never be able to play the anti-Israel card again without members of his audience sniggering. 'How can you attack your own cousins?' they’ll ask. And as for Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic political enemies, both in Iran and the Arab world, I can tell you exactly how they will refer to him in future:

"THE JEW AHMADINEJAD.

"Yup, it’ll be in capital letters, or whatever the equivalent is in their script. And he won’t be able to deflect it with a Woody Allen-esque shrug of the shoulders, because, well, it’s true.

"As for the Jewish world, I think it should milk Ahmadinejad’s new status for all it’s worth. Instead of raging against his race hatred, the Jews should bellow back, in an unmistakeably fraternal tone of voice: 'Oy, Mahmoud, enough already!'"

A Jewish conspiracy within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard? What a concept! Especially in a culture that thrives on bizarre conspiracy theories.

Now . . . Ahmadinejad says there are no gays in Iran. Might he be overcompensating for something else? Inquiring minds want to know.

How to counter Al Qaeda's butt-bombs

Al Qaeda has flummoxed security experts with its new tactic of evading detection systems by hiding explosives and detonators inside the bodies of suicide bombers.

The method redefines what it is to be an "assassin."

The new trick came to light last month in a Saudi palace when an Al Qaeda operative, claiming to want to surrender, exploded in a failed attempt to murder the Saudi prince in charge of counterterrorism operations. The terrorist stuffed a pound of explosives and a detonator up his behind (or perhaps one of his buddies did it for him) in order to foil bomb detectors.

What I'm about to propose is gross and disgusting and downright insensitive. But it's culturally appropriate. And it's a quick, inexpensive way to see if we can damage terrorist recruitment and neutralize this new and dangerous Al Qaeda murder tactic. So here goes.

Rather than get alarmed about lacking the technical means to detect such bomb smugglers, we should use Arab and Islamic (and generally universal, lowbrow, adolescent) cultural traits to make terrorists too ashamed and embarrassed to turn their bottoms into bombs. And to humiliate their supporters.

This tactic is begging for ridicule. Terrorists hate being ridiculed. Sexually repressed young men hate being ridiculed. Islamist extremists hate being ridiculed. Mockery stains their honor. Most terrorists are sexually repressed Islamist extremist young men.

Therefore, it's time for the US and its allies, as well as the Saudis, to turn on the laughs by making fun of the butt-bombers. We can all think of ways to ridicule these weirdos in English - oh, the metaphors are just too plentiful and too crude to list here - and the Arabic language is likewise awash in backdoor humor. To say nothing of Pashto.

Let's start making fun of Osama bin Laden and his butt-stuffing buddies in Al Qaeda, and see how long this terrorist fad lasts. (My money is on the US being too politically correct to give this a try, but I hope I'm wrong.)

Rather than fear these freaks, we should be mocking them. In every country, in every language. It's perfect for the uber-homophobic, repressed, pseudopious culture in which the terrorists live. Let's see how many macho young men really want to meet their fate with the world knowing this: That their last act of piety was packing their fanny full of phallic-shaped C-4 and having their buddy detonate them with a cell phone text message.

Let's see how many virgins that buys them in the next life. And how many other Islamist extremist boys want to emulate him.

Bonus points: Al Qaeda is officially promoting the butt-bomber tactic in a new video it recently posted on the Internet. So we can pin this on Bin Laden personally, and take down his persona a notch or two with some good, old-fashioned locker-room laughs.

Here's a video about the Saudi butt-bomber (CBS calls him the "Trojan Bomber.")

Watch CBS News Videos Online

(Top image courtesy of www.peoplescube.com)

Still time to sign up for my political warfare class

There's still time to sign up for my graduate course, Political Warfare: Past, Present and Future. Taught on Thursday nights at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, the course is the only one of its kind. It's designed for intelligence officers, military officers and diplomats, but (almost) anyone is welcome to sign up. My Foreign Propaganda class is over-subscribed.

Students will study the ancients: Kautilya of India, Sun Tzu of China, Aristotle and Thucydides of Athens, Virgil of Rome, as well as the ancient Hebrews and Persians and even Attila the Hun. Then we go over the political warfare of the Crusades, medieval and Renaissance Europe (especially Niccolo Machiavelli, who likewise studied the ancients), and six hours of intensive lectures on the political warfare of the American Revolution.

American warfighters will benefit from mastery of Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin's political warfare strategies and tactics; we've helped incorporate them into operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Finally, we study more modern political warriors, including the culturally subversive Antonio Gramsci and - this year, for the first time - community organizer Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals.

My students often say that this is a grueling course with a massive amount of reading - and they're right. It's my toughest course and my favorite one. To sign up, inquire directly at www.iwp.edu, and tell them I sent you. Registration is still open for the fall. The course meets from 6:30-9:30 on Thursday evenings, starting September 3. The course website is www.politicalwarfare.us and contains course information, readings, and class assignments. That site will be password protected once the course begins, so take a peek at it now while you can.

(Image of Niccolo Machiavelli courtesy of my friends at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich)

Great piece of Chinese satire

China’s Andy Rooney Has Some Funny Opinions About How Great The Chinese Government Is Here's a fine piece of sophisticated Chinese satire about the communist regime in Beijing, and the flawlessness of its legal system. I don't know if it's from a real Chinese TV show, or something cooked up by those devious tricksters at The Onion. Either way, it's brilliant satire and deserves more attention.