^ that fake comment section was fucking hilarious.

so, this was my primary post:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Rock-Jihadi-Why-You-Hate-Yourself

it was made by mysterywalker, who i honestly consider the best thing on youtube.
his real name's Kory, and he's one of the people i wanted to see 'shadow puppets', before he left for another tour in iraq/afghanistan. that's why he's the 4th name on my 'thank you' clip, at the 1 minute mark.
wasn't the first time i heard or thought about the philosophical dichotomy he's referring to in the clip. but he sums it up nicely, and does a great job mimicking the Flintstones. the animation style, typeface, dust speck artificial aging, etc. and he's one of the few people that consistently makes me laugh.
he currently has 926 subscribers. go sub him, and help get him 1,000 before his tour ends. and watch his old stuff. you'll be glad you did. thanks!
now leave. i need to take a shower.

...this tactic used by the Jihadi propagandists is part of a reverse psychology. It aims at sending a message to the American voters: if you want al Qaeda to win, vote for McCain. The Jihadi web sites cannot state it otherwise, such as if you want the U.S. to win, vote for Obama, because in Jihadi war doctrines there cannot be a victory for America, under any President. Hence, what al Qaeda seems to be attempting to achieve is to affect the perception of the undecided voters by stating to them that the strength of McCain in the war on terror is not really strength. Therefore, in the end, the move is aimed at sinking the chances of the former U.S. Navy Pilot by crumbling the support among undecided voters who might ultimately have come to his camp as late as D Day.

Hi Doc_M. Thank you for taking time to comment. I appreciate it.

I would like to make a few comments. It may seems a somewhat linear because I am tired.

First, I was listening to the radio earlier today. It was an interview with Rich Steves. There was talk about marijuana legalization of course, but then I found out he is currently trying to get permission to take a trip to Iran to visit the people. He mentioned that 90% of Iranians love Americans and he wants to expose that in his show. Funny how coincidences work, isn't it?

I think the internet is a wonderful tool for people to learn about other cultures. However it will not normally change someone's preconceived ideas. I think all people would benefit from being thrown into a culture where suddenly you are the odd one. You are the one with all the weird habits. Nothing quite drives home the concept that we are all different (and there are real, historical reasons for this) like that experience. With that said, I know that the internet has brought exposure of other cultures to many people and is an invaluable tool.

I think that Jihadis, along with every fundamentalist group, will not see reason. Fundamentalism breeds contempt for things that are different because if they are different, they are wrong.

I agree that there is much Us vs Them mentality today. It is propagated and used by many groups to their advantage: media for high ratings, leaders for a direction of action, etc. However, in my mind, the Us vs Them and the use of enemy create the same barrier and attitude. It seems as if we are on the edge of semantics.

Farhad beat me to the people are selfish, not evil... I don't like the word evil. It is used so often these days. There is a wide range of meaning of evil depending on who you talk to. With some people that are in my life, evil has become a word that has become like enemy and has a wide range of meanings (just for that one person) depending on who they are talking about.

Goodnight.

From what I've seen in recent years (though it might be because I live and work in an academic setting), the concept of the "enemy" is a dying one in western culture. Personally I only consider myself to have one enemy--pleased to meet you, hope you guess his name--and more and more people are joining my camp. Since the end of the cold war, the death of racism (at least partially), and the rise of fast global communication, people have more opportunity to SEE foreigners and better understand them. We look at war as something fought between governments or organizations more than between citizens of two nations. We don't look at radical Islamic fascism as a nation. We see it as an organization within a nation (or nations really). We still perceive "your average citizen" as a friend in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So the enemy is the organization who's shooting at you. Even the MEMBERS of that organization are often viewed as victims more than enemies. For example, Iran is not an enemy, Ahmedinejad (by his insistence) is. North Korea is not an enemy, Kim Jong Il is.

Unfortunately that perspective is not reciprocated by the Jihadis. They certainly believe in the concept of the enemy. They would certainly not call a Jew, a Christian, or really any westerner a "friend" or and "innocent."

Of course there are still a HUGE number of people in the west still living with the WWII mentality of Us vs. Them, but in popular culture and in and "civilized" society, they are being marginalized and shunned like racists were 20 years ago.

As for what is evil and what isn't? People are evil in general, but that's beside the point; most people try to be good at least. I guess my opinion is that if someone is shooting at you and telling them to stop doesn't help, shooting them is not evil. Unfortunate maybe, but not evil. In an ideal world, you might be able to negotiate every argument, but in this world, some people only understand the sword.

War is stupid, but sometimes it's the only viable option. As long as there is a single Imperialistic convert-or-die religion (or philosophy), there will be war.

There does however see to be one thing that prevents war. MONEY. Rich countries don't fight. The only exception is when a country is trying to conquer land... or if you still have an insane dictator running your country into the ground. We will never be fighting the UAE for example. We are rich. They are rich. No loony leaders. Nobody wants to waste time fighting when we can be trading and getting richer. Prosperity is a profound deterrent of war. We've never been at war with a country that has McDonalds. When you're rich and prosperous, the only thing to fight over is land.

Your welcome.

You know you can create your own playlists too?!? You should be able to do that from your profile.

In reply to this comment by my15minutes:
Thanks for posting 'Rock Jihadi' into that playlist, dotdude.

Enjoyed all those clips.

Holy shnikies!

Thank you very much! Now that it sifted (and amazingly quickly, thank you all!) I can submit another one of his clips!

In reply to this comment by Issykitty:
I went to check how your first submission was doing... and whoa, it sifted. Congratulations!!!

Siftin' comrade... I need to ask you for a favor. my15minutes needs help siftin' his very very 1st submission.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Rock-Jihadi-Why-You-Hate-Yourself

Could you check it out and maybe give him a vote up? We all know what that's like, and thanks for your time!

Internets 1
Jihadis 0

Hmmm... I don't know Doc... given that these warnings come from MEMRI & DEBKA, I think they should be taken with a large grain of salt, those organizations are just about as biased as any founded by former Israeli intelligence agents can be... and DEBKA, is itself run by and fed information by members of the Israeli military... their material is interesting certainly, but oftentimes not much more than unfounded rumors.

That whole strategy outlined (the second one, about participating in US based forums) seems aimed to only discredit any sort of anti-Bush or anti-war discourse that takes place on the interwebs... sowing the seeds of doubt if you will, planting in your mind the question that perhaps that genuine American who is upset with the way their country is being run is actually a jihadi... frankly I wouldn't listen to them, polls taken within this country by creditable organizations suggest that there is already enough genuine dissent by real citizens that any concerted efforts by al-Qaeda to spread dissent anonymously on internet forums would be kind of pointless.

As for the first part, the declaration of a digital jihad, well, we shall see what happens on Nov. 11th, as I'm not totally conviced that al-Qaeda is comprised of L33t HaX0rs... in fact, I'm fairly certain that up until this point they haven't really operated in such capacity... but who knows, there is a first time for everything.

Oh, and I forgot to add...

It's not just a hypothetical. It has yielded tangible results and the prevention of several attacks, and that's just from the one case that we know of: Kaled Sheik Mohammed. On the moral question, would it have been better to refrain from the "coercive interrogation" and let the attacks happen?

What is more moral, preventing the murder of hundreds or thousands or refraining from coercive techniques like this one?

Had the attacks not been prevented and you learned that there was a KSM type that had information that could have stopped the attacks in advance, would you or anybody else be content with the argument that the attacks could not be prevented because we wanted to maintain our sense of moral superiority and refrain from the use of coercive interrogation?

And we only know about KSM because it was leaked. How many other attacks were prevented due to the use of coercive interrogation on other jihadis that we don't even know about?

Again, we're not talking about people arrested on suspicion - we're talking about jihadis that have been captured on the actual battlefield.