Psyops

October 20, 2006 10:17 AM

Psyops or Pyschological operations are those which "alter the behavior of an enemy, without altering his beliefs". 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.
posted by andywolf (30 comments total)

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"
posted by RufusW at 11:04 AM on October 20, 2006

MOS 37F. Far and away the coolest MOS in the Army. If you're active duty PSYOP, you get airborne training and language school.
posted by QuarterlyProphet at 11:05 AM on October 20, 2006

Sadly, my first thought was, "these are really badly designed."
posted by lekvar at 11:11 AM on October 20, 2006

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 Along with that the Freedom Doctrine was revoked which opened the floodgates for sensationalist journalism only seen in third world countries that influenced this population to support issues and political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.
posted by mk1gti at 11:17 AM on October 20, 2006

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?
posted by parmanparman at 11:27 AM on October 20, 2006

'We are protecting Iraq's future" !!!


-That one should just have a skull and crossbones as the image.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:29 AM on October 20, 2006

parmanparman, i don't remember coming across anything. i'll look around.
posted by andywolf at 11:41 AM on October 20, 2006

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!
posted by prostyle at 11:51 AM on October 20, 2006

Saddam as a Nintendo 64 villain.
posted by barjo at 11:57 AM on October 20, 2006

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.
posted by mk1gti at 12:04 PM on October 20, 2006

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.
posted by brownpau at 1:33 PM on October 20, 2006

Not really, if you are worried about the possibility of suicide bombers.
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:35 PM on October 20, 2006

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.
posted by amberglow at 1:51 PM on October 20, 2006

And of course, terrorizing us is always part of the psyops plan here at home.
posted by amberglow at 1:56 PM on October 20, 2006

I'm really tempted to silkscreen a shirt out of this one
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 2:13 PM on October 20, 2006

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.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:22 PM on October 20, 2006

But you'll get no more info on that subject from me.

That sounds like PSYOP talk to me.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:31 PM on October 20, 2006

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...
posted by juv3nal at 3:31 PM on October 20, 2006

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.
posted by localhuman at 3:34 PM on October 20, 2006

Ah. Make that two mefites who were psyops.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:57 PM on October 20, 2006

Wash your mouth, man, I worked for a living. Hells yes I was a 37 Fox...and not for a moment an officer.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:28 PM on October 20, 2006

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.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:42 PM on October 20, 2006

d00d. ur in evrywhr messin with god-knows-what
posted by toma at 4:03 AM on October 21, 2006

not the Cryptoslavonian peasants it was intended for

You mean the Fantasians have taken a back seat as the premier NATO enemy?
posted by furtive at 2:16 PM on October 21, 2006

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).
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:39 PM on October 21, 2006

Can't a liberal MeFite also be a tool of Satan? Is there some fundamental conflict of interest?
posted by Skeptic at 4:25 PM on October 21, 2006

I'd like to think so.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 5:39 PM on October 21, 2006

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.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:06 PM on October 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

"I could be wrong."

You are. I know this for a fact.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:10 PM on October 21, 2006

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. ...
posted by amberglow at 9:39 AM on October 22, 2006