Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 65

The Rise of Al Jazeera
The Need for Greater
Engagement by the U.S.
Department of Defense
Col. Shawn Stroud
Col. Shawn Stroud was a U.S. Army War College Fellow assigned to the Defense Analysis
Department at the Naval Postgraduate School from 2012 to 2013. He currently serves as the chief
of public affairs for Eighth Army in Seoul, Korea. Col. Stroud holds a B.S. from the University of
Wisconsin-LaCrosse and an M.S. from Indiana University. His public affairs assignments include
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as an advisor and communication director.

I

n January 2007, I traveled with then Maj.
Gen. William B. Caldwell, IV, chief military
spokesperson for Multi-National Force-Iraq,
to the Al Jazeera Media Network headquarters in
Doha, Qatar. At that time, the Iraq government had
forced closure of Al Jazeera’s television news bureau
in Baghdad—accusing it of fomenting discord among
the Iraqi people and heightening the insurgency.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2014

Bernard Smith,
center, a correspondent with Al
Jazeera English
News Channel,
interviews U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Lt.
Darren Remington,
1st Battalion, 8th
Marine Regiment, Regimental
Combat Team 6,
at the Kajaki Dam
in Kajaki, Helmand
province, Afghanistan, 24 May 2012.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by
Cpl. Andrew J. Good)

Nonetheless, Al Jazeera’s popular broadcasts still
reached Iraq from Qatar. Our purpose for the trip
was to conduct live and taped television interviews
and to engage Al Jazeera’s senior leadership in dialogue concerning some of its misreporting about our
operations. Our experience was remarkable. First,
the network’s highest leaders warmly welcomed us.
They joined us for over two hours of discussions
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