dogtown commons

A headline in Monday’s Washington Post:

Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled

A headline in Monday’s New York Times:

An Internet Jihad Sells Extremism to Viewers in the U.S.

So much for “we’re fighting them there so that we don’t have to fight them here.” That never really made any sense, but this pair of headlines appearing the same day really drives the point home. Our war in Iraq isn’t preventing terrorists from fighting us at home — on the contrary, our war in Iraq is being used as a recruiting tool by Al-Qaeda, and the message is appealing not just to alienated young men in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but also to some alienated young men right here at home. As the Times article, by Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet, says:

Mr. Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Queens, is an unlikely foot soldier in what Al Qaeda calls the “Islamic jihadi media.” He has grown up in middle-class America and wrestles with his worried parents about his religious fervor. Yet he is stubborn. “I will do my best to speak the truth, and even if it annoys the disbelievers, the truth must be preached,” Mr. Khan said in an interview.

While there is nothing to suggest that Mr. Khan is operating in concert with militant leaders, or breaking any laws, he is part of a growing constellation of apparently independent media operators who are broadcasting the message of Al Qaeda and other groups, a message that is increasingly devised, translated and aimed for a Western audience.

Terrorism experts at West Point say there are as many as 100 English language sites offering militant Islamic views, with Mr. Khan’s — which claims 500 regular readers — among the more active. While their reach is difficult to assess, it is clear from a review of extremist material and interviews that militants are seeking to appeal to young American and European Muslims by playing on their anger over the war in Iraq and the image of Islam under attack.

The ability of Al Qaeda to attract sympathizers and even foot soldiers in the U.S. is disturbing, but it’s not a surprise. It was completely predictable that the invasion of Iraq would be a propaganda goldmine for Al Qaeda, which is one of many reasons that so many of us fought against the march toward war in 2002 and 2003. As unsurprising as the increase in “homegrown” terrorists and fellow travelers is, the whole Times article is really worth reading. It’s the best account I’ve seen yet of the inside workings of the terrorist propaganda machine, and it traces one young American’s path from nonviolent Islam to a jihadist ideology and an active role in spreading terrorist propaganda on the internet.

I hope people in Washington are taking note. The article is a reminder of what should have been obvious all along: a “war on terrorism” that relies almost exclusively on hunting down and killing terrorists will be counterproductive. This “war” will only be won by waging a better propaganda war than Al Qaeda wages, and by prudently weighing the long-term ramifications next time our leaders have an urge to start bombing a Muslim country.

The candidates for the Republican nomination for President seem to be competing for the “most hawkish” award, from John McCain’s “joke” about “bomb Iran” (sung to the tune of “Barbara Ann”) to Mitt Romney’s statement that he we should “double Guantanamo”. This might be a politically smart way to get votes, but it’s a frightening and dangerous way to approach the problem of terrorism. Rudy Giuliani, who should know better than any of them the consequences of Islamic radicalism, has chosen foreign policy advisers like Michael Rubin, one of the geniuses behind the Iraq debacle, and Norman Podhoretz, who is distinguishing himself by arguing more vociferously than anyone else that we should start bombing Iran.

There’s one thing I haven’t seen mentioned in the coverage of Eric Erik Prince’s testimony to Congress yesterday. Prince is the founder and CEO of Blackwater, the security contractor that is under so much scrutiny for its role in Iraq. Some of the criticism of Blackwater has been that taxpayers are paying more to Blackwater that it would cost to have the same job done by the military itself. This came up in Prince’s testimony:

He also disputed the math that concludes security contractors cost far more than American forces to protect U.S. diplomatic personnel. In its report, Waxman’s committee said Blackwater charges the government $1,222 each day for a single security contractor, which works out to $445,000 on an annual basis. That’s six times the cost of a U.S. soldier, the report said.

Prince said there’s a large amount of expensive training for military personnel that the government pays for, but is not calculated in these unflattering estimates of what his company charges.

“That sergeant doesn’t show up naked and untrained,” Prince said.

Prince’s argument is that Blackwater needs to train and equip their employees, so any comparison should include the cost of training and equipping U.S. soldiers and marines, not just the cost of their salaries. This sounded somewhat plausible at first, but then I remembered something — most Blackwater contractors are former members of the most elite US armed forces (Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, etc). So in fact Blackwater hasn’t borne most of the costs of training their employees — in fact, it’s just the opposite: the US military is spending a huge amount of time and money training these elite troops, then Blackwater is hiring those people away and charging the US Government large amounts of money for their service.

So Prince’s argument is really nonsense — not only is Blackwater not paying many of the costs of training their employees, but in fact American taxpayers are further subsidizing Blackwater by training the people who go on to work for the company. To get a sense of how much training these troops get at taxpayer expense before they go on to work at Blackwater, see this job announcement at Talking Points Memo, which outlines the minimum experience of job applicants:

Please do not apply if you do not not meet these basic requirements.

· 8 years of Military service with qualifications in one of the following: US Navy SEALS, Army Special Forces or Rangers, Marine Force Recon, Air Force PJ or CCT

· Must have or be eligible for US Government Secret Clearance. Must be a US Citizen!

· Must have a minimum of one year experience in Iraq or Afghanistan

For Prince to claim that his company, rather than American taxpayers, is paying for the training of his employees seems quite disingenuous. I wish someone at the hearing, or someone in the press afterwards, had pointed out how little sense his defense actually made.

One aspect of the war in Iraq that has been hard to grasp, for Americans trying to follow events from across an ocean, is how the war has affected the day-to-day culture of the place. We do hear occasionally that Iraqis have stopped frequenting markets due to the violence, or have returned to the markets due to a lull in violence, or that restaurants and barbershops in certain areas have closed, or perhaps reopened, but the vast majority of the coverage — understandably — is focused on hard news like the jockeying among political blocs and the ongoing violence.

Thursday’s LA Times has a nicely done story providing a glimpse into the Baghdad art scene, and how it has fared in the past four years. Most of what we learn is as unencouraging as most other news out of Iraq:

Like other segments of Iraqi society, the art community is withering under a daily assault of car bombs, kidnappings, gunfights and mortar blasts. Dictatorship has given way to the suffocating strictures of religious extremists, who frown on most forms of artistic expression, consider sculpture idolatrous and a painting of a nude an insult to Islam.

Many of Iraq’s artists have joined the flight that has decimated the country’s intellectual reserves. For those who remain, it is a constant struggle to keep producing work that few will ever see and most cannot afford.

The article focuses on Nebil Anwar, who had high hopes for an artistic career after the fall of Saddam, but found himself painting portraits of foreigners to make a living, copying the paintings from photographs because it was too risky to meet face to face. The money was good, but he lived in constant fear that he would be discovered, and finally he decided to move to Jordan, where he now lives. He is pessimistic about the future of art in Iraq:

“Art will die in Iraq,” he predicted gloomily. “Art comes from the artists, and if the artists go, then art will go with them.”

While most of Baghdad’s once-plentiful galleries have had to close, and many artists feel compelled to work in secret, there is a brighter note at the very end of the article. A new gallery opened last year, and it is busy with art shows, poetry readings, and lectures:

For Nasar, the gallery embodies his belief in the power of art to open the eyes of those who follow blindly; it restores sanity amid the bloodshed and creates new heroes for a generation growing up under the sway of gunmen.

“Art is part of life here in Iraq,” he said. “Without it, people would become like monsters.”

The BBC posted a little slideshow on their website in 2005, showing the art that was appearing on the large concrete blast walls that had been erected around Baghdad to protect embassies and other buildings. In an act of defiance against the violence and strife, the artists had covered the drab and imposing concrete with striking murals of pastoral scenes, peace doves, mosques and churches coexisting, and quiet cityscapes.

It would be foolish, of course, to see the persistence of art as a sign that things are better than they seem in Iraq — despite Anwar’s dire prediction, art probably never dies entirely — but nevertheless it’s heartening to get this reminder that art does persist, against reason and against despair.

(”The Vulture” by Esam Pasha, from “Ashes to Art: The Iraqi Phoenix” at the Pomegranate Gallery in New York City, 2006)

More at:

Post-Saddam Art, Newsweek online, January 20, 2006

The Art of Kareem Risan and the Uranium Civilization, Electronic Iraq, July 23, 2007

Concrete: Canvas of Resistance, Subtopia, May 1, 2007