During the Second World War, the United States Government funded a series of films, directed by Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) and narrated by Walter Huston.

The films were intended to show the US Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Marine, as well as the American public, the evil nature of the enemy with which we engaged in that epic struggle. Looking back at those films is educational, as nothing in them was conjured. All of it, every bit, was truth. It was propaganda, a word we assiduously avoid today. Because we lack the perspective that Strategic Messaging is indeed propaganda. And the most effective propaganda is truth.

Perhaps it is time to revisit our ideas on the subject. We can start here.

At a time when we are hesitant to label our greatest terrorist threat Radical Islamic Jihadism, despite the fact that those engaged in that terrorism are radical, Islamic, and waging Jihad, we need to be reminded of the true nature of our enemy.

This is their vision of how we should live (From the AP):

Suspected Taliban militants publicly hanged a 7-year-old boy for spying in the militant stronghold of Helmand province, an Afghan official told the Associated Press.The child was placed on trial by the Islamic extremist group and later found guilty of working for Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government, the local official said.

Karzai on Thursday condemned the alleged act, calling it a “crime against humanity”.

Read it again. A 7-year old boy. Hanged after a trial for spying.

For those who think coexistence with these bloodthirsty creatures is possible through some sort of accommodation, or that such evil does not need to be destroyed, and destroyed by force of arms, let them see a 7-year old child on any street in America, and envision them hanging at the end of a rope.

The destruction of tyranny is as noble a goal in 2010 as it was in 1943.