In an era of radio and TV, it became much easier for powerful countries to suppress, blackmail and destroy weak countries. The importance of electronic media as a weapon of war can be gauged from the fact that apart from mainstream steam, radio stations and TV channels are dedicated to mold the opinion in the target country and mislead the public.
These powerful countries are still running radio stations and TV channels – the broadcasting of which is banned in their own countries – but are aired in the target countries. The countries running them have banned their broadcasts because they are used for false propaganda. Anyone in their own country can challenge them in court and expose their lies. Therefore, their broadcasts have been kept out of the jurisdiction of their country under a deliberate plan.
It is no secret that the USA, UK, and Germany have broadcast organisations that are projects of their foreign ministries of these countries. These are broadcast in the languages of target countries rather than their own language. It is unfortunate that journalists blinded by the lured dollars and euros from the target countries are always available to them.
The time has changed now and we are in the age of social media. The worth of a short clip containing a picture and a scene has increased even more and can change public opinion.
Due to social media, it has also become easy to spread misleading propaganda against any country globally by spreading a viral clip. The story of the fake clip of a woman being flogged in Swat a few years ago is well known. In this case, the mainstream and social media also seem to be working in cohorts. In some cases, a clip of the mainstream media goes viral on the social media of a country and causes riots. In some cases, the mainstream media picks up a clip of social media and starts propaganda on its tail.
This is called fifth generation war whose founder is Russian President Vladimir Putin. The combination of social media and mainstream media not only led to victory in Ukraine but also the 2016 US election. The first reference to the fifth generation war was made by former CIA director John in American media. The two-hour documentary “Putin’s Revenge” shows in full detail how Putin’s outsmarted the United States.
The United States was expected to use mainstream and social media against the Afghan conquerors in Kabul after August 15 but failed miserably. The representatives of media houses continued to propagate from the Kabul airport that people preferred to go with them to the US for fear. This started with claims of evacuating interpreters then soon there was talk of ordinary Afghans leaving Kabul for the US.
This propaganda was an attempt to make people believe that the victors are afraid of Afghans and they feel insecure under their rule. It was also an attempt to give the impression they are were so popular in Afghanistan that people are preferring to move with us to our country. As the propaganda spread, more and more Afghan families gathered at Kabul Airport. And that’s what the Americans wanted do their propaganda would be effective. In the comings days, the United States would claim that since thousands of people had gathered at the airport was proof that they were not an undesirable force in Afghanistan. They would say that people preferred them so much that they had to initiate the largest airlift operation in history.
However, someone else was watching the crowd. As the mob grew, so did the task of those who had an eye on the crowds – ISIS who struck in a deadly attack. The US had issued an alert two days before the attack. It is ironic that the US could not spot the suicide bombers but a few hours after the attack, they located the mastermind near Nangarhar but also killed him in a drone strike. Why is it that the United States does not always see the attacker before the incident but only after the attack? This happened during 9/11 attacks. The 19 hijackers were not seen before but everyone was identified an hour after the attacks.
It seems that the attack on Kabul airport was deliberately allowed. This was done so that the importance of its presence in the region can be realized. And to increase the pressure on some countries in the region to give them bases to eliminate ISIS. President Biden urgently needs a breakthrough to release the pressure calling for his resignation and the possibility of impeachment.
American politics has become devise in the last fifteen years. It is now a politically divided country. Democrats and Republicans are negating political ethics to demean each other. Earlier, Trump and the Republican Party were under pressure from the Capitol Hill incident and Democrats had political dominance. The situation has changed dramatically after Aug 15. Republicans now dominate and Democrats are on the defensive due to the Kabul blunder. This internal tension will only hurt the United States further and China and Russia will take full advantage of the situation. The circumstances suggest that China already has a plan for Taiwan and is waiting for the right opportunity. This will also give even more internal political turmoil in the United States.
The events of the last 25 years prove that the United States is rapidly loosening its grip on the world. It is becoming is a declining force. While it is finding it difficult to protect its interests outside its borders, the United States is also in a state of severe internal political crisis. They claim is that liberal democracy will continue to be the world’s universal system, but the first target of the white supremacist movement is liberal democracy. The system supposed to be imposed on the world is at stake in the United States itself.
The events of August 15 in Afghanistan have already tarnished US image. A British MP said that he was worried about what would happen to them with a weakened America. It was a terrible expression of frustration and they too are beginning to see the fall of America. The ground realities show that this crumbling wall needs just one more push. It’s time to dump them and move on.
