My must read of the day is "I watched all the terrorist beheadings for the U.S. government, and here’s what I learned," by Aki Peritz, in the Washington Post:
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is, among other things, a social media powerhouse. The group skillfully exploits platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among others, to promulgate many gut-churning images and videos of its war against Shiites and the Iraqi government broadly. These include one where the group claimed to have executed some 1,700 captured soldiers. Another video shows ISIS fighters beheading a police chief, then merrily tweeting: "This is our ball. It’s made of skin #WorldCup."
As appalling as these examples are, ISIS is merely following a decade-old playbook. I should know, since one of my responsibilities during the Iraq war was to track al Qaeda in Iraq’s media output for the CIA. Here’s what I learned:
They’ll exploit whatever tactic gains the most media attention. Osama bin Laden’s then-deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, famously told al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2005 that "we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media." But Zarqawi — whose group would eventually become ISIS — already knew that, because his brutal exploits had been earning free media for years, which the group used to gain recruits, advance its message and terrify its enemies.
Never in my life would I want to watch these videos, but there is a very real debate surrounding who should watch them. In 2013, Facebook faced stiff criticism after announcing that they would no longer censor videos of beheadings.
These videos exist, and terrorist have disseminated them for the past decade, but what should those who see them, whether by their own choosing or out of a necessity of their job, take from it?
This is where I partially disagree with the conclusion of Peritz. He seems to suggest as the broad lesson that these progressively gruesome and horrific productions will ultimately lead to the downfall of groups like ISIL, as the communities surrounding them reject their brutality. I don’t know if that’s an accurate conclusion, it may be for someone with a background like Peritz, but it’s different for the average person watching them.
I don’t think these videos should be censored—I also do not think people should be forced to watch them, but if you watch one and see everything Peritz describes, I can’t imagine you’d come to his conclusion. The takeaway would be more personal. You’d remember that these are the people who despise our way of life and will stop at nothing to get their way—and that is where I think there is value in "regular" people seeing these videos. Sometimes you have to see horrific things, not to understand it, but to recognize evil. As a society we are so war weary that we seem to be forgetting what this evil looks like. People should be paying attention to ISIL’s propaganda and love of social media to remember whom we’re dealing with.