] Like a well-targeted attack-ad in a U.S. election
] campaign, the Abu Ghraib images make a visceral
] connection with an Arab audience, that no amount of
] contextualizing, apologies, reprimands or school-painting
] can reverse. No ad agency could have produced a more
] effective al-Qaeda recruitment tool: Bin Laden's movement
] presents its goal as the redemption of Muslim honor which
] has been "prostituted" before the West by "apostate"
] pro-U.S. regimes. Scenes of graphic humiliation of
] Muslims by American soldiers -- women mocking the
] genitalia of naked men -- will reinforce the appeal
] among the shamed young men of the Arab world of the
] extremists' message that violence against America as the
] path of Muslim redemption.

] Like a well-targeted attack-ad in a U.S. election
] campaign, the Abu Ghraib images make a visceral
] connection with an Arab audience, that no amount of
] contextualizing, apologies, reprimands or school-painting
] can reverse. No ad agency could have produced a more
] effective al-Qaeda recruitment tool: Bin Laden's movement
] presents its goal as the redemption of Muslim honor which
] has been "prostituted" before the West by "apostate"
] pro-U.S. regimes. Scenes of graphic humiliation of
] Muslims by American soldiers -- women mocking the
] genitalia of naked men -- will reinforce the appeal
] among the shamed young men of the Arab world of the
] extremists' message that violence against America as the
] path of Muslim redemption.

I never thought I'd find myself blogging an article from time
magazine. Of course, you don't need stratfor to tell you what the impact of this is going to be.

] Like a well-targeted attack-ad in a U.S. election
] campaign, the Abu Ghraib images make a visceral
] connection with an Arab audience, that no amount of
] contextualizing, apologies, reprimands or school-painting
] can reverse. No ad agency could have produced a more
] effective al-Qaeda recruitment tool: Bin Laden's movement
] presents its goal as the redemption of Muslim honor which
] has been "prostituted" before the West by "apostate"
] pro-U.S. regimes. Scenes of graphic humiliation of
] Muslims by American soldiers -- women mocking the
] genitalia of naked men -- will reinforce the appeal
] among the shamed young men of the Arab world of the
] extremists' message that violence against America as the
] path of Muslim redemption.

[ This is being picked up all over the place... always with the obvious connection to sexual decadence and arrogant, big-grin-while-we-destroy-your-culture attitudes which our enemies see in us. And which we've given them, and all the fence sitters, every reason to believe now.

Time doesn't go far enough... the title says "in Iraq", but this has sabotaged the United States EVERYWHERE ON EARTH.

I'll be memeing a WaPo article in a moment... one which i find extremely poignant. -k]