Army Enlists Comic Books, iPods in Insurgent Fight

American forces battling insurgents have added two new tools in their arsenals: iPods and comic books. Seriously.

In the Philippines, U.S. Army psychological operations officers have distributed 600,000 copies of Barbargsa — Blood of the Honorable. It's a comic book starring "Ameer," a "practitioner of kuntao, which is a local form of martial arts. Like Zorro or Batman, he dons a mask and vows to protect the downtrodden and innocent victims of terrorists," National Defense magazine reports.

U.S. special operations forces have used comic books in information campaigns. But the characters were based on well-known American superheroes. Two years ago, two Army officers decided to create one from scratch to tell the children of the [Philippines'] Sulu islands the story of what was happening in their homeland...

The
Philippines military are also portrayed in a positive and heroic light while the villains are the terrorists or “bandits.” The creators were careful to accurately illustrate the Sulu region, and use character names, clothing and mannerisms that reflect the culture of the Tausug ethnic group. There are versions in English and in the local dialect.

In Iraq, I saw similar attempts to turn terrorist-fighters into superheroes, for the local kids to idolize. There, a psychological operations ("psyops") team printed up t-shirts showing a stylized, improbably muscle-bound Iraq policeman. "The real Mujahadeen," the shirts read.

Meanwhile, soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division are gearing up to patrol Baghdad by syncing up their iPods -- "not with songs and movies, but with a laundry list of missions and audio files containing pre-recorded phrases in Iraqi Arabic or Kurdish,"* National Defense *says, in a separate story.

*Loaded with special software, the music players help them communicate with the populace and learn the local culture, and they occasionally serve as handy tools in their tactical missions, such as searching for persons of interest. The gadgets have been so useful that troops are now finding new ways to employ the technology. *

*The
Army so far has purchased 300 of the Vcommunicator Mobile LC devices.
Since last fall, squad leaders from the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st and 4th Brigades have been using the product in Iraq. *

The simplicity that has made the iPod, manufactured by Apple Inc., so successful as a music player also relates to its combat applications.
Soldiers simply scroll through as they search for mission data or for spoken phrases. The display shows the sentence phonetically and in script, and the user can play the corresponding audio clip, which also can be synced to an avatar, or computerized character, that gestures according to customs.

The online demo is priceless, although I didn't see a ton of "cultural" information presented. Just a list of phrases -- and corresponding gestures -- a soldier might need for a checkpoint or a raid.

(High five: EM)

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