How to do IO the wrong way
Posted By Marc on September 22, 2009
A quite brilliant, and very snarky, piece was written by Chris Rodda over at Daily Kos entitled the Top Ten Ways to Convince the Muslims we’re on a Crusade.
10. Have top U.S. military officers, Defense Department officials, and politicians say we’re in a religious war
9. Have top U.S. military officers appear in a video showing just how Christian the Pentagon is
8. Plant crosses in Muslim lands and make sure they’re big enough to be visible from really far away
7. Paint crosses and Christian messages on military vehicles and drive them through Iraq
6. Make sure that our Christian soldiers and chaplains see the war as a way to fulfill the Great Commission
5. Post photos on the internet of U.S. soldiers with their rifles and Bibles
4. Invite virulently anti-Muslim speakers to lecture at our military colleges and service academies
3. Have a Christian TV network broadcast to the world that the military is helping missionaries convert Muslims
2. Make sure Bibles and evangelizing materials sent to Muslim lands have official U.S. military emblems on them
1. Send lots of Arabic, Dari, and Pashtu language Bibles to convert the Muslims
It seems appropriate to put in a quote from Matthew (7: 15-20; NIV translation) on the dangers of false prophets:
15″Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Finally, while searching for the reference from Matthew, I came across a graphic that truly expressed my view of the professionalism of the people involved in this type of inadvertent IO campaign:
JWC on 
Daniel Gallant on 
MM on 
Mr. Xyz on 
Marc on
The strange thing is that no matter how many times this issue is broached, the least defensive (or overtly hostile) general reaction seems to be along the lines of, “Well, I’ve never seen it and it’s not really a problem anyway.”; that is, if there’s any reaction at all.
In the Orient back in the day, the only people peddling this line of conversion were burned out ex-hippies, and they certainly weren’t violent about it, just insipidly creepy and boring. Any US Military personnel you would encounter were serious people, and they were more likely to engage in arms-length, cynical humour than talk religion, race or politics.
Fast forward to late 2002, a young-ish US Naval Officer newly attached to the Embassy in a Muslim country tells me sotto voce, “We’re here to save as many souls as possible before the balloon goes up, because when it does we won’t be able to get all our people out.” That’s a direct quote. If I hadn’t known Evangelical-types in the States (Saddleback), I might have thought he was joking or pulling a cocktail party psyop. I dunno, maybe he was, but it didn’t appear so. He seemed like a nice guy ‘tho. His wife was uncomfortably condescending, however, and a bit creepy, like a conservative hippie or something.
This was at a casual function for some honcho from another embassy. A US Army Major was also present; he was decidedly old school and had an Asian wife. The Major opened a conversation in the time-honoured way by making fun of the USAF. He seemed to spend the evening avoiding the Naval dude or looking at him askance with a pained expression, then thousand-yard staring into his whiskey. The Naval Officer’s wife seemed very disdainful of the Major’s wife. I remember thinking at the time, the spit’s going to hit the fan and it ain’t gonna turn out well. Mayhap the major was thinking something similar.
If you could shed some light on this Gordian Knot, it’d be much appreciated. It surely makes my brain hurt and fills my heart with woe (or is that “whoa”).
Hi NW,
“conservative hippie” – I love it!
You know, over the years I’ve talked with quite a few people from a really wide range of religions. While I don’t like generalizing too much
, they tend to break down into those who use it as a convenient cover, those who believe and show it in their deeds, and those who demand that everyone else needs to agree with them.
The US is notorious for producing all sorts of extremely weird, Protestant offshoot groups (check our The Burned-over District for a good study of it). They have also produced some pretty militant sects that are extremely far away from what would now be considered mainstream Christianity.
One of the main reasons people of the third type – the “convert or die” crowd – join these groups is because they require simple solutions to complex problems that will help to bolster their desire to feel “valuable” and explain why they are where they are. Of course, once you are inside, it can be pretty hard to get out, and there is a lot of pressure from your “friends” (all of whom are in the group) for you to stay. It sounds like this young-ish US Naval Officer was in a similar crowd. Unfortunately, so is my nephew by marriage who is in the US Forces as well.
nw wrote: “The strange thing is that no matter how many times this issue is broached, the least defensive (or overtly hostile) general reaction seems to be along the lines of, “Well, I’ve never seen it and it’s not really a problem anyway.”; that is, if there’s any reaction at all.”
I detect some incredulity in his statement. However, it is worth noting that the items in the Daily Kos piece are all old news. They are the same incidents reported in every article like this. Why? Because there aren’t many incidents to report. The “I’ve never seen it” reaction is pretty standard because the overwhelming majority of us really never have seen it. That is why articles like this have to repeat the same old stories. Call me crazy, but I detect an ulterior motive when Daily Kos and al-Jazeera air these worn out tales of rare misconduct as though they are recent and commonplace.
I posted a similar thread at SWJ in which al-Jazeera recycled the same bits of information that Daily Kos recycled. Note the responses..
All of that said, it certainly is a problem when commissioned officers don’t know better than this. In addition to boning up on concepts such as “following orders” they might also want to peruse Romans 13:1-2: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” I’d be curious to know how they square that passage with any rationalization for attempting to spread the word when they are ordered not to.
And as for the Soldiers who are carrying bibles on patrol, only one word comes to mind: POGUE. I can’t remember a single occasion when I or any of my Soldiers had that much free space in our kit, the willingness to shoulder one more ounce of weight, or the free time on patrol to be reading or handing out bibles. What type of unit is that Fobbit in?
Thanks for the responses. Don’t get me wrong, like I said, the Naval Officer seemed like a together guy, when he dropped that line on me I was surprised and a bit taken aback. It just didn’t seem like the most helpful attitude to bring to a diplomatic post in an Islamic country. It also didn’t square with the professionalism that I’d taken for granted in associating with US Military personnel in the past. Perhaps I’d idealised the institution based on the individuals I’d met, who were pretty impressive people from whom I learned much.
@Schmedlap – Fair enough, if folks haven’t seen it, they haven’t seen it. I don’t mean to question anyone’s experiences. It must just be my dumb luck to bump into these people all over the globe. I’ll take your word for it that the self-defeating situation no longer exists.