Comments on: Psyops

Psyops

andywolf — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:17:56 -0800

Airborne leaflet propaganda. Airborne leaflet's Iraq 1991. Psyop leaflets over Iraq 2002 - 2003 (thumbnail index halfway down the page). Coalition Propaganda Leaflets to Iraq 2003-2004. British Propaganda Leaflets to Iraq 2003-2005. Psyop leaflets dropped over Afghanistan. More Afghanistan leaflets 2001 - 2002.

By: RufusW

RufusW — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:04:38 -0800

Big difference between the British and American approach. "Coalition aur power can strike at will." vs. "We want the same as you, stop the violence"

By: QuarterlyProphet

QuarterlyProphet — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:05:45 -0800

MOS 37F. Far and away the coolest MOS in the Army. If you're active duty PSYOP, you get airborne training and language school.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:11:07 -0800

Sadly, my first thought was, "these are really badly designed."

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:17:39 -0800

Actually this has been used against the american public since around the time Reagan was elected, 'October Surprise' anyone? Along with that the Freedom Doctrine was revoked which opened the floodgates for sensationalist journalism only seen in third world countries that influenced this population to support issues and political parties they never would have given a chance to prior to Reagan's time. I believe all this came about because of Stansfield Turner's efforts to clean up the CIA during the Carter administration, creating 'blowback' from the CIA itself which worked with the Reagan/Bush team to have Iran hold the hostages until the elections were over to give Reagan a big P.R. boost. I really don't think that anyone who was not an adult before that time really knows how much U.S. government and this countrie's infrastructure has devolved since then. . . But I think people are wondering about it. If this continues, I see a nation of deluded bubbas led by persons even more morally corrupt and self-righteous than the boobs in office now. I think at that point Canada and Mexico will construct walls across the borders of their own just to keep out refuges from 'Murica.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:27:28 -0800

Are there any Taliban leaflets handed out to Afghans during the same period? Or, Iraqi Baathist or Shiite leaflets for Iraqis? Or, basically, leaflets from the other side of the conflict?

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:29:41 -0800

'We are protecting Iraq's future" !!! -That one should just have a skull and crossbones as the image.

By: andywolf

andywolf — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:41:19 -0800

parmanparman, i don't remember coming across anything. i'll look around.

By: prostyle

prostyle — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:51:04 -0800

Wow, that's like the christmas card from hell. Sadly, my first thought was, "these are really badly designed." That was my initial thought as well, then I started digesting the intended messages and pairing them with these horrible composition and I promptly began losing my lunch. You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!

By: barjo

barjo — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:57:13 -0800

Saddam as a Nintendo 64 villain.

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:04:43 -0800

Here's a laundry list of CIA interventions in governments all over the world going back to it's inception. Why do they hate free and democratic governments? And a bit more here. And here's a bunch more.

By: brownpau

brownpau — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:33:11 -0800

I remember seeing a joke propaganda leaflet around 2002-2003, promising a free trip to Disneyland to the first 2,000 Iraqi (or was it Afghani?) fighters who dropped their weapons and showed the leaflet to a coalition soldier. Something like that. I thought it would actually be an effective idea.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:35:28 -0800

Not really, if you are worried about the possibility of suicide bombers.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:51:46 -0800

You don't need leaflets when you have willing Adminstration and Military people and a very compliant media: "He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country" --about Rumsfeld no less. Shit like this is slung out daily as psyops targeted at us--whether it's religious, or simply blatant lies.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:56:15 -0800

And of course, terrorizing us is always part of the psyops plan here at home.

By: Uther Bentrazor

Uther Bentrazor — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:13:37 -0800

I'm really tempted to silkscreen a shirt out of this one

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:22:54 -0800

Would you believe there exists a liberal MeFite who served as a psyops officer? But you'll get no more info on that subject from me.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:31:05 -0800

But you'll get no more info on that subject from me. That sounds like PSYOP talk to me.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:31:30 -0800

Would you believe there exists a liberal MeFite who served as a psyops officer? But you'll get no more info on that subject from me. paging adam greenfield...

By: localhuman

localhuman — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:34:33 -0800

cool stuff. it'd be fun to replace the arabic with english and staple these around town somewhere. too bad i don't have mad street-art skills.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:57:32 -0800

Ah. Make that two mefites who were psyops.

By: adamgreenfield

adamgreenfield — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:28:23 -0800

Wash your mouth, man, I worked for a living. Hells yes I was a 37 Fox...and not for a moment an officer.

By: adamgreenfield

adamgreenfield — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:42:00 -0800

Also, lekvar, one of the principles of PSYOP work is that both medium and message must be carefully tailored to the predilections of your target audience, and that sometimes that means designing product that looks fairly crude. I nearly flunked an exercise during the MOS course because I designed a legitimacy campaign around four-color semigloss posters with a restrained sans serif type treatment and lots of white space - y'know, all the aesthetic cues I respond to, not the Cryptoslavonian peasants it was intended for. The instructors thought the imagery and messaging were spot on...and completely undermined by the mode of presentation. I resubmitted it two-color on pulp with, like, Comic Sans or something hideous like that, and wound up graduating top of the class.

By: toma

toma — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 04:03:13 -0800

d00d. ur in evrywhr messin with god-knows-what

By: furtive

furtive — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 14:16:00 -0800

not the Cryptoslavonian peasants it was intended for You mean the Fantasians have taken a back seat as the premier NATO enemy?

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 15:39:54 -0800

I'm not certain that the person I'm thinking of who was in psyops was an officer, I've just assumed so. If you, adamgreenfield, also entered the military after completing a college degree but were not an officer, then my assumptions are obviously wrong. Anyway, I think it's interesting that there's at least two mefites who were in psyops and that they are both liberal. Especially in the context of this post and a general MetaFilter culture which almost certainly thinks of such people as tools of Satan (metaphorically, of course).

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 16:25:57 -0800

Can't a liberal MeFite also be a tool of Satan? Is there some fundamental conflict of interest?

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:39:16 -0800

I'd like to think so.

By: adamgreenfield

adamgreenfield — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:06:19 -0800

If you, adamgreenfield, also entered the military after completing a college degree but were not an officer, then my assumptions are obviously wrong. You can read, right? What does it say on the Wikipedia page? Look, as far as I know, and not that it really matters all that much, I'm the only former 37F on Metafilter. I could be wrong. But I'm absolutely certain there's never been a "PSYOP officer" here, because until about three weeks ago, there were no PSYOP officers - it wasn't even made a branch until 01 October of this year. (IIRC, the officers in the units to which I belonged were predominantly Infantry, MI or SF by branch.) As far as "liberal" goes, on most matters of concern, my *position* can reasonably be described as originating in left-libertarian values, but I would never identify myself as a liberal. Even given these misconstructions, however, I can only conclude that your recollections are wrong, and that you were in fact thinking of me. You're just as wrong in your insinuation that MeFites in general are closed-minded about PSYOP, by the way, as a cursory search would have revealed. People here have always seemed quite interested, fair and open-minded on the topic, or at least have seemed so to me, and I think the archived record reflects this. I'm not quite sure what you'd get out of painting the "general MetaFilter culture" as knee-jerk antimilitary - other, that is, than a warm and fuzzy sense of self-righteous superiority - but it's clear to me that your reading is a straw man.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:10:37 -0800

"I could be wrong." You are. I know this for a fact.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 09:39:41 -0800

Related? A Fort Meade building that houses Army counterintelligence activities was heavily damaged yesterday in a stubborn and spectacular [accelerants?] six-alarm fire that burned for hours, generating thick clouds of smoke that streamed and billowed in a brisk wind. ... … and continued to burn well after 10 p.m. The fire damaged upper portions of the sprawling three-story building, which is headquarters to the 902nd Military Intelligence Group and houses several contractors, officials said. The 902nd monitors domestic dissent—you know, people like the Quakers. ...