Good soldiers follow orders and hundreds of American military men and women returned to the United States on holiday leave this month with orders to sell the Iraq war to a skeptical public.
Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on leave
By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Dec 29, 2005, 05:44
Good soldiers follow orders and hundreds of American military men and women returned to the United States on holiday leave this month with orders to sell the Iraq war to a skeptical public.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/...
I have been waiting for this story to break. Because of my friends in the region I knew this was going on and it as at the very edge of legal activity. This is a very aggressive-but-passive form of Information Warfare. Passive is the key word here because if it is active, it is against the law. The US military does not conduct Information Operations against the US public. We have a very specific exemption for recruiting that allows us to run TV ads and hire PR firms but beyond that is prohibited. This is what the big flap with the Rendon group (Good source here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...) was about. There is more to that story but I am too close to it so I will wait on that too.
CHB has a pretty good story but there is much more to this and I hope someone digs more into it. This is a HUGE problem because it reinforces a perception INSIDE the military that there is ever a good time to shade the truth. You do that for asshole bosses and now that is being applied to the American public.
If it is an active program that specifically targets the US public or US policy makers, it is against the law.
If it is a passive program that encourages less than complete truth or directs right or wrong answers, it is violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
No matter what, it is STUPID and disgusting. We are better than that.