The Psychology of War
National Review, which is usually wrong these days, is dead-on right concerning the media savvy terrorists.
This kind of reportage has created a relationship of co-dependency between terrorists and the media: The fetishization of suffering results in a morally obtuse emphasis on civilian casualties, and the ensuing outcry from world organizations and opinionated foreign governments intimidates and hamstrings Western militaries attempting to defeat terrorists. And the more that Western forces are undermined by oppositional coverage, the greater the incentive for terrorists to maximize civilian casualties and thereby keep the media pressure on their enemies. Operating without moral restrictions, Hezbollah has endeavored to do exactly that — and with magnificent, arguably unprecedented, success. Because democratic governments cannot endure in conflicts that the public believes to be immoral, the task of groups such as Hezbollah is to undermine the Western public’s sense of moral clarity in the fight. And, in too many cases, in the television news media Hezbollah has found a willing partner — as have other terror groups like Hamas and Fatah.
The key here is that Hezbollah knows they can’t win by brute force. They lob a hundred plus missiles a day into Israel but for the most part miss major targets. So they rely on the media to bring down Israel, by seeking to maximize civilian casualties within Lebanon by launching rockets from apartment buildings, wearing civilian clothes, and operating in heavily populated areas. They want the Lebanese to die, because they know that the press will have a field day over civilian casualties, and it will bolster their support across the Arab world.