The latest US attempt at combatting the Islamic State’s social-media-borne propaganda is decidedly low-tech: leaflet drops displaying a grisly cartoon that portrays the jihadist army as indifferent murders.
While Isis spreads its message through web and mobile media platforms like Twitter, US air force F-15Es dropped 60,000 paper leaflets over Raqqa, its Syrian capital. The drop, on 16 March, was not announced in the daily tally of air strikes provided by the military command in charge of the Iraq-Syria air war.
The cartoon shows queued Syrians, meant to be Isis recruits, horrified when their line results in masked fighters leading them into a blood-spattered meat grinder. “Daesh Recruiting Office”, reads a legend in Arabic, using an alternative, slightly insulting name for Isis.
Crude propaganda like that displayed in the leaflet complements a US strategy to combat Isis in Syria that Obama administration officials openly treat as an adjunct to their primary theater in Iraq, something both Syrian rebels and US legislators consider inadequate to seize territory away from Isis.
A long-telegraphed Pentagon program to train “moderate” Syrian fighters into an anti-Isis force, led by a special-operations veteran, major general Michael Nagata, is expected to begin within the month, with approximately 1,500 recruits.
