Thread by @DrJasonJohnson

Outside of the intelligence community, how many average Americans even knew who al-Baghdadi was ?

Just a simple test of public knowledge: How many times during the last few years were there massive reports that the U.S. had "Killed the Number 2 man at ISIS"???

At least twice : In 2016 Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli
theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

Then again in 2017 : Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli
thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/03…

My point is that outside of Bin Laden who for almost a decade Americans knew him as the man behind the 9-11 terror attacks, none of these other leaders ever pierced public consciousness. Why does that matter? This perpetuates "Never Ending Wars"

You cannot consistently have the U.S. report that ISIS is a franchise, with various cells operating independently & simultaneously sell us on the idea that killing one person significantly disrupts the entire group. Public ignorance is dangerous in foreign policy

#alBaghdadi death or 'severe wounding' has reported at least 4 times over the last few years. He may actually be dead this time but this simply proves how these 'ISIS' Leader Deaths headlines are used to make our wars across the globe look effective en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_…