DCRepublican.com

Sun 30 Mar 2008

A few days ago I made a post about a Hamas video and discussed how many people think American politics is ugly, when in reality compared to many parts of the world, our politics is quite civil.

A great deal of my political interests (in the foreign realm) lay in the politics of the Middle East, so I’ll probably tend to keep most of my international political discussions on those topics, however if you have something you’d like to submit, I’d be more than willing to post it.

Today’s video comes from Lebanon. This is by no means a new video, but it is extremely powerful in showing how a little propaganda can make such a destructive organization like Hezbollah seem like it is only protecting the best interest of the Lebanese people.

There are some things that have to be pointed out about this video.

First, this video was featured on Al-Manar (translation: The Beacon), which is one of the Hezbollah propaganda networks (the other being Al-Nour, which is their radio arm).

This is important to note, because this isn’t just an internet video. Following the 34-day fight with Israel, this video was an extremely important tool for boosting Hezbollah’s credibility, making them appear to be the party that will stand up for the Lebanese people and take on the Israelis.

Second, take note of the Katyusha rockets displayed throughout their video. It’s quite interesting how they can take such a primitive piece of Iranian weaponry and make it appear to be the tool that under Hezbollah leadership, can protect them from anything.

There are a lot of messages within this video that could be elaborated on further, including the music, the location in Lebanon and even the people in the video. However, if people want to give their takes on those items, I’ll leave that to the message board.

However, the one thing I want anyone who watched this video to take away is an understanding of how terrorist organizations like Hezbollah are using these sugar-coated propaganda videos to promote their cause and gain credibility amongst their people.

Whenever I watch videos like these (I have watched well over 300 different propaganda videos from the Middle East alone) I cant help but reflect on how thankful I am that we have media that will challenge other media sources, without having to worry about getting killed.

But more importantly, this video should serve as a reminder of how dangerous Iran (who funds Hezbollah) already is. Just imagine how powerful Hezbollah will be, should Iran fully develop a nuclear weapon. Not only would our key ally in the region (Israel) be in danger, but I have no doubt that our ties with the more friendly Arab nations would be put in serious jeopardy.

I welcome your thoughts on this.