I s’pose this guy must be talking about US. Hah, hah, hah ….
Rumsfeld: Terrorists use media to manipulate American people
by Army Sgt. Sara Wood
American Forces Press Service
10/26/2006 – WASHINGTON (AFPN) — The “center of gravity” in the Iraq war is in America with the American people, not on the battlefield, and the media is a powerful tool that influences the people’s will, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Oct. 24.
“This is the first war that’s been conducted in the 21st century with all the new media realities of 24-hour talk radio and Sony cams and digital cameras and news constantly on television,” Secretary Rumsfeld. “But the American people have a pretty good center of gravity.
“They’ve got a good inner gyroscope,” he said. “And it may be disorienting for a time; it may blow us off course somewhat, but we tend to re-center.”
America’s wars always have had critics, but the difference in this war is the prevalence of the media, Secretary Rumsfeld said. Terrorists recognize the influence the media has, so they use their own media committees to determine how best to manipulate the American public through the media, he said.
The terrorists plan their attacks to deliberately dishearten the American people and make them think the cause isn’t right or that America makes terrorism worse, Secretary Rumsfeld said.
“I just don’t happen to believe that America is what’s wrong with the world. And I know that’s a fact,” he said. “And these terrorists have been determined to dishearten the American people, and we simply must not let that happen.”
Read it here.
