Image!

This is coolbert:

From the Daniel Pipes blog this entry extracted in part with comment. Thanks to Dr. Pipes.

"Lion's Den :: Daniel Pipes Blog"

"Reflections on Current Hamas-Israel Hostilities" 

"Two observations about the hostilities that began on Nov. 10":

"(1) The old Arab-Israeli wars were military clashes, the recent ones are political clashes. The wars of 1948-49, 1967, and 1973 were life-and-death struggles for the Jewish state. But the wars of 2006, 2008-09, and now 2012 are media events in which Israeli victory on the military battlefield is foreordained and the struggle is to win public opinion. Opeds have replaced bullets, social media have replaced tanks. Will Israel prevail in arguing that its enemy initiated offensive action? Or will those enemies, Hamas or Hezbollah, convince observers that Israel is an illegitimate regime whose recourse to force is criminal? The war must be fought primarily as a media event."

[see point two from the original entry]

A media event? Fourth Generation Warfare [4GW] the world-wide mass media harnessed by the forces of both sides to present an image. The image an important facet of 4GW at all times, all involved parties striving their mightiest to establish and then maintain that image favorable and unquestioned.

A defining characteristic of 4GW being:

"Highly sophisticated psychological warfare, especially through media manipulation and lawfare"

Perhaps that most traumatic of all images, an injured child, bloody and missing limbs or even dead SHOWN TO THE PUBLIC AND RE-BROADCAST OVER AND OVER MOST EFFECTIVE! Expect to see this!

As for the morality of displaying the body of a dead child for propaganda purposes, no matter how worthy the cause [and no matter who does it], I leave that for the reader to decide!

coolbert.