Students of History

Iraqi insurgents apparently know their history. As outrage over the video of Somali’s dragging the bodies of Sgts. Shugart and Gordon through the streets of Mogadishu forced a queasy Clinton Administration—long on rhetoric and short on staying-power—to ultimately withdraw from the country, so it seems the Shura Council of Mujahedeen in Iraq hope to apply similar pressure in Iraq after this incident:


A video posted on the Internet Wednesday in the name of an extremist group claimed to show Iraqi insurgents dragging the burning body of a U.S. pilot on the ground after the crash of an Apache helicopter.

Parts of the video were blurry, and the face of the man being dragged was not shown. His clothes were so tattered it was impossible to tell if he was wearing an American military uniform.

The video, posted by a group calling itself the Shura Council of Mujahedeen, claimed that its military wing had shot down the craft, which the U.S. military said went down Saturday.

Question is, at this point anyway, did it actually happen? According to US military sources, that is not completely clear: The U.S. military condemned the posting and said that although reports of a Web site video "suggest that terrorists removed part of a body from the crash site, the authenticity of the video cannot be confirmed."

"We are outraged that anyone would create and publish such a despicable video for public exposure," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington said.

Such a thing depends for it’s effectiveness on a couple of things at least; first off of course, is it true? Secondly, what is the mood of America? What reactions can we expect from Americans about this?

American’s perceptions about world events, our place in that world and our vulnerabilities were very different 13 years ago. I personally don’t think that seeing such things today is the kind of tipping point that it was for President Clinton’s mission in Somalia.

The President has been resolute about Iraq from Day one and has routinely urged the nation to maintain that same sense of resoluteness on the issue. Early reaction, as limited as what I’ve seen today, doesn’t indicate people are getting riled up over this piece of jihadi propaganda.