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DoD Took Its ISIS Bombing Campaign Online

Just as cruise missiles came raining down on Islamic State targets all over Syria Monday night, the US Department of Defense was busy on building a social media campaign to match the on the ground shock and awe.
Image: A Tomahawk missile firing from the deck of the USS Arleigh Burke. YouTube

Just as cruise missiles came raining down on Islamic State targets all over Syria Monday night, the US Department of Defense was busy on building a social media campaign to match the on the ground shock and awe.

As early as this morning, several DoD linked online accounts were already actively publishing the exploits surrounding the overnight bombings. One video was a selection of cuts showing Tomahawk missiles fire off of the USS Arleigh Burke and destined for Syrian ground.

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Later in the afternoon, the government followed up the Tomahawk launch videos with aerial target footage from some unidentified weapons system, graphically highlighting the targeted bombings. Watch as not one, but two missiles fly into nearly the same hole at 0:10 of the DoD video below.

In typical DoD fashion, the descriptions accompanying the videos are light on details, with the aftermath left to the imagination.

But if you're looking for an on the ground perspective at what a Tomahawk missile strike can do, an apparently Belgian militant with al-Qaeda-affiliated group Jahbat al-Nusra can show you after his compound was targeted in the flurry of American bombings:

Besides videos, DoD paired the strike footage with a series of tweets with before and after shots of struck compounds. While the tweets don't specifically speak to the restrained damage, the viewer is left with a sense that the bombings were so precise only holes are left in the targeted structures.

Part of the sudden glut of DoD social media fodder is undoubtedly part justification and reassurance from an administration wary of portraying the conflict as a war. While the Islamic State has been portrayed as a serious threat by the Obama administration, it has gone out of the way to avoid committing to a ground war.

From a political point of view, the airstrikes have to appear both effective and justified. So, while American campaigns like "Think Again Turn Away" showcase the barbarity of IS, DoD takes care of the real social media war. Hence tweets from DoD like this one, affirming that the organization has enough at its disposal already to destroy the terrorist threat in Syria without the need for ground troops.

The transparency of tweeting images of operations—or indeed, the unprecedented live-tweeting of active war by DoD—stands in stark contrast to the shadowy drone strike campaigns aimed at perceived terrorist threats all over the globe. Not even sustained FOI requests by journalists has yielded much comment from DoD on its alleged shadow war.

But "humane" targeting of militants, and due diligence in the process of war, is in vogue. The Israeli Defense Force seemed to make the same pitch in a series of propaganda and strike justification videos during the Gaza conflict.

Ultimately, though, this is just another phase in governmental social media use and PR gamesmanship. The DoD's latest foray is par for the course when it comes to bureaucrats pumping up the government online.