Psy-Ops and Iraq War
Dr. S. M. Rahman
Immanuel Kant had dreamt of perpetual peace in the world. Instead perpetual war is all that the dwellers of the globe are experiencing. War to end war was the rhetoric used for justifying World War II but that did not happen. Over 200 military operations have occurred since then but peace is nowhere in sight. Nations predisposed to imposing their will on other nations, often take recourse to war as a psychological weapon to bring them to a point of desperation to accept the terms and conditions, which are deemed imperative for sustenance of dominance of powerful nations. World has always been in this vicious game of controlling nations for power and economic exploitation, occupation of territory and all that go to satisfy the greed of the powerful ones. Clausewitz was right that “war is an extension of policy by other means”. In order to achieve the objective of war a powerful weapon was conceived known as psychological warfare (psy-war). It was defined as “the planned use, in time of war or declared emergency of propaganda and exploitation of other actions, with the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes and behavior of enemy, neutral or friendly foreign groups in such a way as to support the accomplishment of national aims and objectives.”
This weapon assumed to be the most vital winning factor of the World War II by the allies and defeat of the Nazis, whose psychological warfare strategy propounded by Dr. Gobbles was inherently inferior being based on lies and damn lies. The Germen strategists acknowledged the allied forces’ superiority in psychological weapons. Eisenhower acknowledged; “It was an important contributing factor in undermining the enemy’s will to resist and supporting the fighting morale in the occupied countries. Psychological warfare has proven its right to a place of dignity in our military arsenal.”
The military analyst J.F.C Fuller who coined the term psychological warfare in 1920 predicted, “the traditional means of warfare may in time be replaced by a purely psychological warfare, where in weapons are not even used or battle fields sought but rather the corruption of the human reason of dimmning of the human intellect and the disintegration of the moral and spiritual life of one nation by the influence of the will of another is accomplished”. His prediction did not prove to be true, as USA has remained glued to the concept of massive destruction for exhausting the will of the adversary and reduce its fighting skill to be able to perpetuate the hegemony of USA. Both the Gulf wars of 1991 and the present Iraq war bear a testimony that USA accentuates human tragedy, euphemistically called ‘collateral damages’ to achieve the objectives. Mind boggling figure of expenditure being spent by USA on its military budget, which accounts for 40% of the military expenditure of the whole world, testifies how ruthless it could be. It is estimated that with the rate the military budget is increasing, by the year 2008 it would come to $ 500 billion. To justify this huge expenditure it has to demonstrate its military might to ensure its primacy over the world. It is this dimension of psychological warfare, which is the unique feature of USA as it negates the very purpose of psy-war to reduce killings and human sufferings, as Sun Tzu had emphasized that the purpose was to achieve victory without even fighting a war.
As the psy-war gained its efficacy in the conduct of war, it proved to be far more damaging than any other weapon conceived so far, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) notwithstanding. The military strategists however realized that psy-war is an all time affair both during peace and war and also to be used to win over the hearts and minds of not only the enemies but also of the neutral countries and strengthening the support of the friendly nations. To associate it with the negative connotations of war was not deemed expedient. Therefore, there was a search for new terminology to encompass its broad dimensions and objectives. Psychological operations (psy-ops) came in handy to fulfill this purpose. It was defined as “Psychological activities and psychological warfare and encompasses those political, military, economic and ideological actions planned and executed to create in enemy, hostile, neutral or friendly foreign group, the emotions, attitudes or behavior favourable to the accomplishment of national policies and objectives”.
USA has an elaborate setup at Fort Bragg, North Carolina to impart training, to plan and execute psy-ops at my theatre of war that USA and its allied forces may be engaged in. This special school has all the elaborate arrangements of trained psy-ops units, brigades and divisions to launch leaflet operations at a massive scale besides beaming propaganda communication through radio and electronic media. The propaganda is launched through White source (authentic and well-known sources) or Black Operations (distorting the origin of source like black radios). Moreover, Gray propaganda is also used where no sources are indicated and messages are communicated. Combinations of all sources are well planned and executed to suit the requirements. The idea is to demoralize the fighting forces and cause dissensions and defections among them. Ultimately, it is aimed that they would be manipulated to surrender. The civilian population also are psychologically softened and persuaded to lend no help and cooperation to their fighting soldiers.
Psy-ops, therefore, is a very comprehensive weapon for creating attitudinal climate favourable for war, its conduct and even continuing the operations after the war was seized. It comprises a whole lot of activities like imposing or lifting of sanctions, trade embargoes, mobilizing IMF, World Bank and aid giving agencies for providing or depriving loans and other activities to highlight the ideological over-tones to lend moral justification for war. The Gulf War of 1991 is indeed a success story of this weapon. Iraq was psychologically maneuvered to commit blunder by attacking Kuwait. It is now revealed that on July 25, 1991, in the meeting between ambassador Glaspie and Saddam Hussein, the US strongly suggested, it would not intervene in a conflict between Iraq and Kuwait. The deception worked to the detriment of Iraqi leader, as he was demonized as Hitler having lust for grabbing neighbour’s territory. Indeed the psychological fall out of this grave mistake caused enormous damage to the people of Iraq and the image of its leader in the world. The whole edifice of psy-war was built on the so-called moral theme and exaggerating the potency of the Iraqi Imperial Guards to justify ruthless bombing of Iraq.
Continuation of sanctions even after war is part of the strategy, so that Iraqi soldiers, out of sheer debility, the dread of weapons and the fear of death (3Ds) would not be able to put strong resistance for a long time. John MacArthur has written an elaborate account in his book, “Second Front”, covering the strategies and tactics followed in this war. A secret ten-page document known as “Annex FoxTrot”, spelt out the psy-ops doctrine. There was a planned effort to project the war a success without showing colossal loss of lives. Media coverage of operation Desert Shield was very selective. “News media representatives will be escorted at all times. Repeat at all times”, says the document. The media Moguls- CNN, CBS, NBC, and BBC did a fine job of implementing the doctrine. The book rightly acknowledges: “ Never before had carefully designed electronic imagery so dominated the coverage of a conflict. It was the first full fledged logo war; Vietnam –era film of actual fighting look crude and old fashioned along side the slick production values of Desert Graphic, and since animated slaughter was obviously out of the question, the imagery harmonized perfectly with the Pentagon’s plan to hide the killing”.
The success story of psy-ops conceived and planned in Gulf war made USA complacent that it would meet with the same success in the present war termed “Operation Iraq Freedom”. But nothing of this happened. Psy-ops cannot sustain for long in war, which is devoid of moral justification. USA had no logical basis, this time to launch aggression on Iraq when UN sponsored inspectors were doing their job meticulously well. To give a final verdict whether Iraq possessed these so-called weapons of mass destruction, it was only fair to give them a little more time that they had solicited. But it is surprising why was there such a hurry in the end, as they say? It was to achieve geo-strategic orgasm to fully establish the macho image of USA, which its enormous power and potency to kill. The time gained for inspection was only a diversionary tactic to mobilize the gigantic armada to be let loose on Iraq. It was also a ruse to destroy its existing stock of missiles so that it could not be used against Kuwait and Israel. Despite all this massive psy-ops preparations and executions, Bush-Blair Coalition did not prove to be effective and it boomeranged on them. There are several determinants of psy-ops failure, which need to be elucidated.
Conversionary propaganda is the basic requirement to create an attitudinal climate for support of the so called righteousness of the cause and to impress upon the world that USA and its strategic ally -Great Britain are committed to achieve the so-called moral and ideological objectives. This whole effort proved abortive, as the aggressors could not lend any justification for doing, what they did. It became very obvious that the operation was launched to implement Zionist agenda spearheaded by the cabal comprising Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfwitz, David Wurmser, Dov. S. Zakheim, Richard Armitage, John Botton, Steven Bryen, Douglas Feith, and Fred C. Iklé, and Zalmay M. Khalilzad. This group essentially an extension of the Likud party of Israel had signed and submitted memorandum to president Clinton to implement. It was before George Bush was saddled into power. The idea was to execute the policy of USA to go beyond containment and sanctions and destroy Iraq completely so that it would not be able to muster strength to challenge Israel’s and thereby US’s primacy. It is a well-established norm of warfare that a defeated nation is never subjected to another attack. To justify the immoral attack “excuses” were coined to lend justification for the invasion of Iraq. Ironically, these were not consistent. It was said that Iraq had not implemented the Security Council’s resolution during the past 12 years but the fact was lost sight of that Israel had done it even more blatantly, without retribution. It was then propagated that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; there was no ground reality to justify it. The focus then shifted to dole a gift of democracy to the tyrannized people of Iraq, who were under constant suppression from the dictator. It was again a very farcical preposition as USA had the best of relations with the autocratic regimes in the world and wherever, democracy was brought which did not go in the interest of USA was ruthlessly demolished examples being Algeria and Turkey. The moral force of the war was fragile and so weak that the entire humanity expressed its utter disgust on the invasion of Iraq, which is ironically twisted to be dubbed ‘coalition’, which according to Robert Fisk, is a lie.
Divisive propaganda is the other important objective of psy ops. It is planned and executed to break the unity of any nation and atomize it into as many splinter groups as possible. Iraqis were to be divided into Shiaits, Sunnis, Kurds etc and all efforts made in this respect proved to be counter productive. There was much greater unity witnessed among the nation than was ever before. The psychological reason was that the war battered people of Iraq and the dehumanized way in which USA was imposing sanctions by manipulating UN had created great hatred for the unipolar power of the world. They were inwardly craving to get the revenge through some one who could redeem their honour. In fact they were looking for a Salahuddin Ayubi to free them from their miseries and exploitations. Even though Saddam Hussein has no common traits with the great Muslim warrior Ayubi, as he was an epitome of truth and piety, Saddam, was a tyrant and with all his failings, somehow psychologically filled this gap as an archetypal imperative. This dimension was grossly over looked by the Pro-Zionist Cabal, which was out to Balkanize Iraq into Kurdish section in the North, Sunni section (minus Saddam Hussein) in the center and Shiai’t entity in the South. This indeed is in keeping with the old game, which the past imperialist – Great Britain – played to break the unity of Ottoman Empire. The nefarious game is persistent legacy to divide Muslim polities into smaller nations so that they are deprived of a cohesive force. Pakistan was halved into two countries with a similar objective. So is the case with Indonesia. Paradoxically the European nations are being united into a composite whole but Muslim societies are being fragmented, as part of divisive strategy.
In order to be effective in psy-ops the basic requirement is Target Analysis, which entails gathering up to date strategic intelligence and ground realities, psychosocial make up of the people, their values and attitudes. It is indeed puzzling that USA, so miserably misread the situation. Perhaps, this has never happened in history of psy-ops. It was a pipe-dream calculation that the Iraqis were fed up with their ruler and that they would present bouquets of flowers to their so-called ‘liberators’ and embrace them with open arms. Nothing of this sort happened. No doubt, Afghanistan was routed due to the ferocity of weapons but the military defeat could not achieve peace in the region. Similar is the case in Iraq; as there is a limit to human endurance against superior weapons and their killing capabilities very similar to tactical nuclear weapons.
In the article by the scribe “Iraq War – Defiance to Yielding” (News April 26, 2003). The final outcome of war is analyzed.
“The Iraq war ended as speculated as no one could conceive that Saddam Hussein with his relatively primitive fighting machinery, particularly inadequate air power would be able to achieve any worthwhile military objective. Its defeat was forgone but it was expected that Baghdad would not fall like a house of cards and its Republican Guards would be able to inflict heavy casualties, creating Vietnam like syndrome. But it did not happen. Why so, is an intriguing question? Perhaps war on Iraq took a U-turn from engaging directly hand-to-hand with the Iraqi combatants and a Kautilyan approach was adhered to which paid rich dividends. Kautilya had classified war in three categories - open war, concealed war and silent war. The open war strategy was adhered to by the allies. Ruthless use of aerial warfare, cluster bombs and missiles were to cause as much human disaster as possible. The idea was to break the will of the Iraqi people, but they resisted the onslaught without surrendering. They were only waiting for the street fight in Baghdad and the allied soldiers to dismount from their tanks. The allied strategy was to avoid such a risky encounter, which could inflict unbearable casualties. Therefore, they took recourse to concealed war followed by the “silent war operations”. In concealed war they used surprise, deception and targeting of important leaders including Saddam Hussein to be killed, in order to achieve victory without much fight. This also did not quite succeed. In the “silent war” dissensions among command structure were perhaps created which lent easy routes to enter into Baghdad. The strategy seemingly paid as it did in the Afghan War. Only when the fog of war will disappear, the reality would unfold itself as to what really transpired between defiance and capitulation. “Silent War” requires total secrecy. The formidable military might of the allied forces, perhaps did not achieve beyond destruction as the silent war maneuver did.”
Credibility is the key factor which determines the success or otherwise of any psychological operation. The strategic propaganda (which has a long-term impact and is dove-tailed with the national aims and objectives) could not pay any dividends, as the manifest was markedly different with the latent. The objectives laid down were totally different from what people deciphered from the very beginning. The US foreign policy is much too oily and any rhetoric to bring democracy and other values as the raison deter for aggression could not be reconciled. If there were no oil in Iraq and it only produced potatoes, no such military adventure would have been launched. It was clear from the very beginning that propaganda strategy was to suit the Zionist regime – a clean break from the comprehensive peace plan for the Middle East. It was to work closely with Turkey and Jordan to contain, destabilize and rollback Israel’s most dangerous threat in the region. Saddam Hussein was scape-goated for this purpose. The tactical propaganda even though it occasionally intermixes with lies as these are targeted to achieving instant results, also became counter productive. The very first propagation, that Saddam was killed in the operation, created enormous dent and later on, even if they were telling the truth, it was not perceived to be such. In the Gulf war of 1991, tactical propaganda succeeded, as the counter channels did not exit to expose the reality. This time it was different. Al-Jazira, Geo TV and PTV prime TV made effective rebuttal of the hyperbolic claims.
Taking all parameters of psy-ops into account any student of this field, would be constrained to say that USA committed the same mistakes what Nazis did in their operations during World War II. They lost the credibility as they based their propaganda on the weak structure of falsehood and lies. The world has witnessed the unfolding of the imperialistic design – a complete command and control of USA over the world. It is a regression into the Dark Ages and in consonance of the objectives of H.G. Wells, who in his writings, “the open conspiracy” had advocated the global subversion of all nation states, the scientific depopulating (cradle war and ethnic cleansing) of darker-skinned races of the planet and eventually to establish one-world oligarchical domination under the Anglo-American leadership. This is what Bush and Blair are up to. Iraq even being routed has totally eroded the credibility of USA.
The Iraq war brings into mind a reflection of Hobbsean life- nasty, brutish and short. In his famous Leviathan Hobbes contended, “In a state of nature, there is no property, no justice or injustice; there is only war and force and fraud are, in war, the two cardinal virtues”. This is the psy-ops objective of George Bush and his neo-conservative clan, ironically for protecting ‘western civilization’ and its cherished values. In earlier times pirates did not conceal their greed and rapacity. They would come and plunder. Nowadays virtue-loaded words and platitude serve as propaganda gimmicks to cover up hi-tech armed invasions, to grab energy treasures of non-nuclear nations. It is deemed vital to sustain the glitter and glamour of the affluent world.