I am not sure if those of you in the UK have had the same impression, but I found that the story that broke the other day with the leaked email from a British Army major criticising the RAF performance in Afghanistan has had a snowball effect in terms of a media spotlight on the mission. Suddenly, I found myself watching soldiers parents criticising the politicians and generals for the way the mission was planned and is conducted, and in particular for the logistical inadequacies of the UK military. Although with the mounting casualties in recent weeks, together with the UK leadership of the NATO mission there, the media in the UK has been following developments much more than 6 months ago for example, in the past few days broadcasters have been reporting the story as if it had just broken. Item after item has led the MoD and the Army leadership on a PR counteroffensive. On the other hand, the RAF seems not to be know how to counter the bad publicity it is getting.
Another thing I find myself wondering about is impact of technology on modern warfare. Rather than the big toys and kinetic effects through RMA etc. I am more interested in smaller things like mobile phones or the internet. In the past days, the Afghan story has exploded in the UK through this kind of technology. It increases the ability of oversight, while providing the media with the much wanted negative stories and more importantly pictures! Note the mobile phone footage shot by a soldier during a gun battle in Helmand province.
This creates a whole problem of perception v. reality on the ground and the question of whether it is really possible to get the full picture of the situation though a short media story. At the same time it creates (although not in this situation) a real difficulty in winning the battle of perception, and gaining a dominance of the media battlefield in the 'long war.'
What can the military do about this? Nothing. At the end of the day, bad stories like these will get out sooner or later, so it is more often than not a question of countering bad news.
I'll end this confused post here... but would like to hear what some of you make of these muddled thoughts.
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2 comments:
The US military has long had a system whereby one mails a letter or package to New York, using local postage rates; then it's airlifted overseas. During the 1960s, a neighbor sent a weekly bar of Dial soap to her son in Vietnam, and once she sent him a set of foulies (waterproofs). The same thing happened during the 2003 invasion of Iraq--but on a higher level. Instead of GIs asking for antibacterial soap, officers were having their moms mail them commercial GPS receivers because the army units were so slow to arrive.
Nigel,
I had quite a good experience with the RAF (I was teaching the ICSC (A) at Shrivenham) but admitedly had only a couple of pilots in total and none were fighter pilots (who I heard are the way you describe). However, I see your point and you might be on to something...
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