The
attack against Iraq has already begun; however, the weapons being used in this
pre-war attack are not the conventional military hardware we all know of, but
rather a barrage of selected visual, auditory and even electronic information
used with the aim of demoralizing the Iraqi military.
The
use of this form of selected information, better known as psychological
operations or “psyops”, is a well known practice of the United States army.
The definition of psychological operations is “planned operations to convey
selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their
emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign
governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.” The purpose of
psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and
behavior favorable to the originator's objectives (US Department of Defense).
The
History of Psychological Operations Carried Out by the U.S.
The
U.S. Psychological operations depend on psychological factors such as fear,
desire, reason or other factors to encourage certain attitudes, feelings or
behavior which are favorable to the United States amongst enemy, neutral and
friendly states and forces. The United States has an extended history with
PSYOPS dating back to World War II, when leaflets and radio broadcasts were
proven to be effective mechanisms of persuasion of enemy forces.
During
the Korean War, the United States 1st Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company dispersed
leaflets, which centered on "good soldier-bad leaders,"
"surrender and you will be well-treated" and "we can crush
you". Themes and loudspeakers mounted on aircraft and vehicles were used to
broadcast verbal messages. Similar tactics were used by the U.S. in the Vietnam
War.
During
the weeks leading up to the 1991 Gulf War, The U.S. used leaflets, radio and
television broadcasts, in addition to loudspeakers, to propagate messages themed
around Iraqi isolation, Arab brotherhood and the power of the allied air forces.
29 million leaflets of at least 14 varieties were dropped during a period of
seven weeks reaching around 98% of the 300,000 Iraqi troops.
On
October 7, 2001, The U.S. began the bombing of Afghanistan. Along with the usual
psychological barrage of the Afghani public with leaflets and radio broadcasts,
the United States Air force dropped food packets and small battery-powered
portable radios to those without radios or electricity; broadcasts informing
Afghanis where to find the yellow food packets started that very day.
Psychological
Operations Against Iraq
The
psychological war against Iraq started on October 3, 2002. 120,000 leaflets were
dropped by an American A10 "Warthog" fighter-bomber, with warnings to
the Iraqi military against continuing to fire at American and British jets. The
leaflets carried a drawing of a warplane firing missiles at an anti-aircraft
battery on the ground with the Arabic text: "Iraqi ADA Beware! Do not track
or fire on Coalition aircraft!" The back of the leaflet says
"Attention Iraqi Air Defense. The destruction experienced by your
colleagues in other air defense locations is a response to your continuing
aggression toward planes of the coalition forces. No tracking or firing on these
aircraft will be tolerated. You could be next."
Another
leaflet carries the text: “Before you engage coalition aircraft, think about
the consequences.” The back of this leaflet shows the face of an Iraqi soldier
surrounded by smoke and the picture of a woman holding her crying child. It
reads: “Think about your family. Do what you must to survive.”
Leaflets
are also directed at foot soldiers. "Do not risk your life ... leave now
and go home," says one leaflet. "Watch your children learn, grow and
prosper," says another one. Over 8 million leaflets of different varieties
have been dropped on Iraq to date.
The
U.S. began broadcasting its Information Radio in Iraq on December 12. The
broadcasts are transmitted by Commando Solo aircraft and operated by the 193rd
Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. The EC-130E
planes are modified Air Force transport planes, which can broadcast simultaneous
high-power medium wave, shortwave, FM and TV signals (BBC Monitoring
International Reports).
Thousands
of leaflets were dropped by coalition air forces listing the five frequencies
that the Iraqi people can tune in to listen to the Coalition broadcasts. The
station broadcasts anti-Saddam messages mixed with a selection of Iraqi and
American Pop music. The following are transcripts from radio broadcasts:
“History
has shown that appeasement of brutal domineering regimes only brings greater
tragedy. Saddam too [like Stalin] has a lust for power, and the world will stand
up and put an end to the terror he imposes on others, before he destroys Iraq
and crushes the hopes of its proud people.”
“Saddam
has built palace after palace for himself and has purchased a fleet of luxury
cars all at the expense of the Iraqi people. This money would be much better
suited to build libraries and schools. This money would have gone a long way to
provide better food and medicine for the people of Iraq. The amount of money
Saddam spends on himself in one day would be more than enough to feed a family
for a year.”
“Do
not let Saddam tarnish the reputation of soldiers any longer,” said a recent
broadcast. “Saddam uses the military to persecute those who don't agree with
his unjust agenda. Make the decision.”
Mobile
phones and e-mails of prominent Iraqi officials have been swamped with messages
urging them to break with the regime. One e-mail message reads: “Iraqi
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons violate Iraq’s commitment to
agreements and United Nations resolutions. Iraq has been isolated because of
this behavior. The United States and it allies want to liberate the Iraqi people
from Saddam’s injustice, and for Iraq to become a respected member of the
international community. Iraq’s future depends on you.”
The
psychological operations performed in the weeks leading up to the 1991 Gulf War,
which were intended to persuade the Iraqi soldiers to surrender without a fight,
were somewhat successful as thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendered often at the
first sight of the U.S.-led ground invasion force. Yet, this time the motives
behind all the leaflets, radio broadcasts, e-mails and mobile phone messages are
somewhat different. They aim to cause disloyalty and betrayal of Saddam and to
convince the Iraqi people that they would be better off without him in power.
So
has it worked? Only time can tell; however, according to reports done by
Islam-Online’s Abd Araheem Ali, the Iraqi public is not being swayed by the
shower of leaflets and radio broadcasts. When asked how the Iraqi people are
handling the current situation, Adnan Hamdan, an Iraqi citizen said, “In
general, the Iraqi citizen does not accept dishonor, therefore we do not accept
any invasion on our land by any force no matter how powerful. We will resist the
U.S. with all our might.” As for Wissam, a 9th grade student who was stopped
while playing soccer and asked about his feelings, he said, “We do not fear
war... we are used to living in these circumstances as we have done so
before.”
Sources:
-
Ali,
Abd Araheem, 2003: Arabic
News. IslamOnline.
-
BBC,
2003: US
escalates psy-ops war.
-
Feuilherade,
Peter, 2002: US
Radio Propaganda Broadcasts Target Iraqies. BBC Monitoring International
Reports
-
Index
online, 2002: Iraq:
US 'Psyops' broadcasts.
-
Islam-online,
2003: U.S.
War Against Iraq Turns "Cyber".
-
IWS,
2003: Psychological
operations.
-
Jelinek,
Pauline, 2003: U.S.
Leaflet Campaign Sends Iraq Message. Bradenton Herald.
Aisha
El-Awady is an IslamOnline.net staff-writer. She has a
bachelor’s degree in medicine from Cairo University and is currently working
as instructor of Parasitology in the Faculty of Medicine. She may be
contacted at aawady@islam-online.net
