-
So a few days ago this happened.
-
All of this has happened before…
ISAF Gets in Twitter Fight with Imaginary Taliban. Again.0
likes·
0
comments -
Then I came across this thanks to an astute blog reader.
-
U.S. Twitter war vs. Taliban flares during weekend | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
The Twitter tiff: It’s a realm usually reserved for celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian. On Sunday, though, Twitter yet aga…0
likes·
0
comments -
Interesting story on how U.S. forces are fighting with the Taliban — on Twitter. @StewartUpton quoted. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77524.html#.T98qhG3Kv0c.twitter0
likes·
0
comments -
Apparently Dan Lamothe (a generally solid reporter from what I’ve read of his work) also thinks this is an official Taliban feed.He tweeted the same story as it was picked up by Politico.LTC Stewart Upton, referenced in the first story above, had this to say about the “engagement”:
-
Upton, a Marine, said the Taliban post about “10 lies or false tweets a day” regarding operations under the jurisdiction of Regional Command Southwest. The Taliban’s goal, Upton told POLITICO in an email, is to project strength in the eyes of sympathizers and financial donors.0
likes·
0
comments -
Keep in mind that he’s talking about the @ABalkhi (or @ABalkhii) account:
-
This is the most well-known of the alleged ‘Taliban’ accounts, yet everything seems to suggest that @Abalkhi (and the account later created, @Abalkhii with two ‘i’s) is unofficial. He never tweets any material which isn’t already up on the Taliban’s website. He seems to speak Pashtu and/or Dari (translating material from the news section of the Pashtu site before it has been translated and uploaded on the English site). This might be (at a stretch) one reason why journalists continue to refer to his account as being ‘official’. He also tweets completely manually — presumably because he has no access to the official site’s RSS stream (which is not provided to normal users of the website). He set up his account a week after the death of bin Laden, and my hunch is that the operator of this account probably doesn’t even live in Afghanistan (or Pakistan).0
likes·
0
comments -
So the account isn’t a Taliban account, and I have my own personal reservations as to how much the 140 characters on Twitter are going to affect potential Taliban donors.Wouldn’t it be easier to have a telethon? Or is that so last century?Upton goes on to explain why he was “engaging them”.
-
“By engaging them yesterday on their false claim, they were held to account for their post and forced to somehow try and validate it,” Upton said. “In the end, hopefully they lose credibility, donors, and recruits when these false posts are pointed out.”0
likes·
0
comments -
Huh.False posts get pointed out.Like these?
-
3/6 During the operation, insurgents attacked the security force. The force returned fire and requested a precision airstrike.0
likes·
0
comments -
4/6 During the follow-on assessment, the Afghan and coalition security force discovered two women with non-life-threatening injuries.0
likes·
0
comments -
5/6 The security force provided medical assistance and transported both women to an ISAF medical facility for treatment.0
likes·
0
comments -
If you’re going to portray Twitter as some kind of outlet for information for which the tweeter should be held accountable for putting out inaccurate information, then @ISAFMedia failed miserably.The next tweet addressing this incident? This:
-
Story on General Allen’s visit to Logar. (AP) http://ow.ly/bs9qw0
likes·
0
comments -
PATROL BASE PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan – The commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan apologized Friday for civilian deaths in a coali…0
likes·
0
comments -
Which points to one of the key missteps that the PAO makes in using Twitter: it doesn’t seem to fully grasp that Twitter is a tool for conversation, for getting information out, but not for condensing your press releases into 140 character segments.If you use one outlet to put out bad info (i.e., we didn’t kill anyone), and you learn later that you’re wrong (i.e., we killed a whole bunch of people), then address that.
I’m going to assume that the “them” is the Taliban, even though…never mind. That horse is pretty dead by now.
But back to his comment about donors.So I’m a wealthy businessman (let’s say I live in…I dunno…Saudi Arabia). I have a lot of money I desperately want to give to support jihad in Afghanistan.I’m flipping through my timeline, just hoping Kim Kardashian responds to my pleas for a retweet, wondering what she sees in that Kanye anyway, and then I see that “engagement.”I’d been thinking about funneling money through my financial networks, but then I run across that little gem, and suddenly, I think…”Wait. They’re…liars! Thanks, USMC! I almost made a horrible investment mistake!”I’m sure that’s just how that happens.Fortunately, LTC Upton has found more than one “Taliban” tweeter to take on, Devil Dog style:
-
@alemarahweb How can the Afghan Security Forces be cowardly when it is the Taliban that run from the fight, hide, and wear women’s burqas?0
likes·
0
comments -
Alex Strick van Linschoten, who’s spent a little bit of time studying this part of the world, had this to say about that account:
-
This is one of the accounts that is followed by journalists. It is exclusively posted to by twitterfeed. There appears to be no direct manual tweeting on this account. This is an official account. It is also one of the two accounts that @ISAFmedia believe to “have some tie to the Taliban.”0
likes·
0
comments -
Source for that last statement? This story about yet another @ISAFMedia/”Taliban” slapfest:
-
Its main opponents are @alemarahweb, which is alledgedly the Twitter arm of the Taliban propaganda magazine Shahamat (the Bravery in English), and @ABalkhi, which also seems tied to Shahamat, but frequently taunts @ISAFmedia directly.Though it’s unknown who exactly runs the accounts, “those are the two main accounts we track that we believe have some tie to the Taliban,” the ISAF representative said.0
likes·
0
comments -
Good thing that the Public Affairs Office in RC Southwest is just on top of the game as @ISAFMedia is:
-
And, in a way, it sort of represents the futility of a lot of what goes on in Afghanistan these days: someone sitting behind a desk in ISAF headquarters, tweeting away at a Taliban twitter account, hoping to goad someone in response, but there is nobody to respond to since @Alemarahweb is tweeting automatically without anyone needed to run their account.0
likes·
0
comments -
To be fair, it takes a little time to figure that out, and it’s the hipster thing to do in PAO circles to believe that everyone’s on the Twitter, and that cyber jihad is coming.But one of the things that drives me nuts about PAO releases is that they share stories that really aren’t all that positive to begin with.LTC Upton does not disappoint in this regard.
-
@khaliq79349539 @abalkhi Where are the Taliban now? At the negotiating table..but how about the Afghan security forces http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-181187860
likes·
0
comments -
I’m just going to gloss right over the fact that talks with the Taliban have completely stalled as of May, and just focus on the story tweeted.From the BBC piece, posted not long after the Kabul attacks on 15 April, let’s start with this, wherein ISAF spox LTC Jimmie Cummings describes the ANSF response to those attacks:
-
“They were on scene immediately, well-led and well-coordinated. They integrated their efforts, helped protect their fellow citizens and largely kept the insurgents contained.”0
likes·
0
comments -
Full disclosure: I live in the neighborhood of one of the targeted buildings.ANSF were “on scene immediately” mainly because there are so many of them in the immediate area.ANP/ANA/APPF/NDS (not to mention the massive ISAF presence) are right…there.So the ANSF didn’t so much go to the scene, as the scene came to them.Then there’s the outpouring of apparent Afghan pride via the interwebs.
-
The most obvious expression of pride has been on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, with several pages dedicated to the Afghan army and police.0
likes·
0
comments -
This is hardly an indication of national emotion, since 2/3 of all Afghans don’t even have access to basic electricity, much less the internt.Folks who are just trying to survive and still working with oil lamps aren’t terribly concerned about whether or not Facebook just bought up Instagram.Speaking of folks just trying to survive, LTC Upton authored this piece of feel goodness on the RC Southwest page at DVIDS:
-
With trucks laden with rice, beans, sugar, chai and cooking oil, the men of 3rd Brigade hoped for a healthy turn out of local residents, but what happened was simply unexpected. An estimated 2,500 local people came to receive the kind gifting and provided an ecstatic welcome to the soldiers.”We are very happy that the ANA are here with food and cooking oil,” commented one local man. “We really appreciate the gift and we support what they are doing” he added.0
likes·
0
comments -
I repeat my previous statement re: just trying to survive.More people showed up than expected because more people than ISAF/ANSF realized just need the basics to survive: rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil are hardly “gifts.”And the really classy title of the article? “Tea Time in Gereshk.”Unless you’re the Mad Hatter, picking up basic supplies isn’t “tea time.”I can not make this stuff up.Back to the “good news” in the BBC article.This from a reporter who spent some time with the ANA.
-
He was impressed by the Afghan soldiers. He says they move quickly as they have less ammunition and lighter packs, but there are drawbacks.0
likes·
0
comments -
Getting all Saving Private Ryan with the smaller packs. How retro.
-
“The positives are it’s their country, they can move fairly fast, they are used to walking and they are in pretty good shape,” he says.0
likes·
0
comments -
So the ANA can pass a PT test. This is good.
-
“The other side is that after the second or the third day they ask their American counterparts for water and rations.”0
likes·
0
comments -
Oh.They can move fast ‘cuz the packs are light.The packs are light ‘cuz they don’t really have anything in them.This…is not awesome.
-
A lack of equipment and short training times have long been concerns for the Afghan army.0
likes·
0
comments -
To sum up:The head PAO in RC Southwest tweets to a non-existent Taliban account, referencing non-existent negotiations with the Taliban, and his supporting evidence for how much better the ANA are than the Taliban is a story that makes it pretty clear that, while the ANA can move around OK, they can’t do it for very long.So any success they might have, which they achieve whenever the fight shows up literally at their doorstep, is only going to be sustained until the water and food runs out, usually in 2-3 days.And his idea of a “good news” story is about how an ANA humanitarian aid drop of “gifts” was nearly overwhelmed because so many people showed up for “tea time.”So what’s my point?I know, it’s just the Public Affairs Office: it’s their job to get a nice shiny sheen on the gigantic flushing turd that is the NATO expedition in Afghanistan.However:a) The PAO should know who (and how) to engage on social media.Giving a non-Taliban Twitter account any more of an audience they already have by “engaging” them just illustrates how bad our intel systems really are: if you can’t figure who’s doing what on Twitter, what else don’t you know?b) Don’t dress up a standard Humanitarian Aid mission as “tea time.”
Trying to illustrate how much the Afghan people love their Army through a gross distortion of what’s actually taking place in order to make this whole thing palatable to the folks at home is disingenuous and just…tacky.Humanitarian aid missions are good things: any time the Afghan Army can be encouraged to give people much-needed supplies vs. shooting them in the head… -
Seriously? This Is Your Good News Story?
This is what it’s come to. NATO in Afghanistan – French doctors save girl’s life – ow.ly/8iWco Video courtesy NATO-OTAN- ISAF (@ISAFmedia…0
likes·
0
comments -
…even if it’s accidentally, is really a pretty good thing.Dressing it up is not.c) They need to find better stories to illustrate their point.
News articles that feature a small segment of the Afghan population and point out how the Afghan National Army is pretty much dead in the water when it comes to logistics may not be your best call.Unfortunately, any honest reporting is going to point that out…lately the tone seems to be that yes, the ANA is grasping the idea of protecting their country, but any long-term prospects are suspect.A great example is this story in the Huffington Post: -
Meanwhile, the slow grind of daily patrolling never stops. In Logar Province, troops fan out along the hills, looking for Taliban and demonstrating their presence to the villagers. One of the soldiers, Mohammed Zaman, has written a little love poem to his country on the scratched surface of his helmet.The men are fearless, says Col. Abdul Wakil Warzajy, a commander. They have taken hundreds of battle casualties, but good men alone don’t make a good army, he says, adding: “An army is an army that is completely equipped.”0
likes·
0
comments -
That one covers the gamut from Americans being disrespectful to their ANA partners, to old M-16s, to boots that barely last weeks.It’s a charmer.Unfortunately, this is the result of the ISAF/NTM-A plan to stand up kandaks that could fight, and just sort the logistics out later.Ask Patton how well that worked out, and that was with a well-trained army.So on that front, ISAF is pretty much screwed unless it keeps doing what it does best: put out stories written by its own people about how great the ISAF mission is going.Otherwise, you might spoil “tea time.”
Related articles
- Tweet of the Day: @ISAFMedia Makes Sure @ABalkhi Gets It Right (findingmytribe.wordpress.com)
Pingback: ISAF vs Twitter vs intelligent analysis… « afghanhindsight
Pingback: Al Jazeera Picks Me Up, Does Not Buy Dinner | It's Always Sunny in Kabul
Pingback: New Feature: Whack-a-Wonk Wednesdays | It's Always Sunny in Kabul
Pingback: » Why the ISAF-vs-Taliban Twitter Fight Doesn’t Make Sense THE KABUL CABLE کابل تلگرام
Pingback: Some Thoughts from the Masses on #PAOFail | It's Always Sunny in Kabul
Pingback: Dear ISAF Twitter Warriors: I Am Very, Very, Very Sorry | It's Always Sunny in Kabul
Pingback: » Does @ABalkhi Actually work for the Taliban? THE KABUL CABLE کابل تلگرام