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"Successes of U.S. and Western Soft Power: Iranian leaders have expressed alarm that the Iranian population is increasingly attracted to Western culture and political values. Iranian leaders have long been concerned about "Westoxification" (or gharbzadegi), including the loss of Iranian culture to Western arts and education, and remain concerned today about Western soft power. As Ayatollah Khamenei lamented, “The issue of engineering information and the new means of mass communication that have entered the arena are all tools for dominating the culture of a country . . . The same is true of the internet, of cyberspace, and of information services and tools. These things cannot be in the hands of the enemy. Yet, today they are in his hands. Today, [the media networks] are tools and instruments for cultural infiltration. Today, they are the enemy’s tools for cultural domination.”"
united-states-soft-war-iran
Posted from csis.org
Iran
Warfare
181x: Information Warfare
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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It seems really strange for the leadership to even think that way, LTC Eric Udouj. Before the revolution, their culture was headed toward Westernization in a big way. They've driven themselves back into the Dark Ages with purpose. There are people there that remember the pre-revolution days, so it's not like this is something new. It's Iranian leadership rhetoric.
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LTC Eric Udouj
The problem in Iran is exactly that - people remember - as well as see elsewhere.... and it can not be shut off like the old days when the revolution was hijacked. Our problem these days is that we get so wrapped up in the bean counter reports lookiing at objects - that we completely seem to forget that fighting Iran is first and foremost about disrupting the ideology of the revolution... not about conventional military operations... but some at the top fail to see that... they never did get it before - nor now.
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LTC Stephen C.
LTC Eric Udouj, your comments bring to mind another problem, which is misuse of special operations forces, more particularly U.S. Army Special Forces. What you have described is right in their wheelhouse, along with psychological operations units. As long as they’re over tasked with somewhat conventional missions, they’ll never be able to accomplish the mission for which they’re trained. I assume that’s kind of where you were headed with your thoughts?
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LTC Eric Udouj
Center mass of target... as usual. Over tasked attempting the wrong paths instead of the one that has to be taken. At some point you have to get out of the countering role and actually engage the problem itself.
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