PsyOps

[F/Sgt. Steele]

just for those of you who don't know much about Psy Ops and their role in warfare, i thought i'd give you all a taste of what it is.

Psyops or Pyschological operations are those which "alter the behavior of an enemy, without altering his beliefs" (those which alter beliefs are propaganda techniques). By contrast psyops are much more tactical and typically induce only shallow reactions or responses required only for a quite short time, e.g. the duration of a bombing campaign.

Now my challenge to you, is to find out as much about psyops as you can and then, give an opinion.

i'll be adding my tidbit later on.

[Tracker]

All I know, is that you'd be great for the job!

[piper]

Wowee, just look at the name. PsyOps...Psychological...brain...ops...operation.. hmmm...two and two equal four, or is it three? How do you give an opinion of PsyOps, are we opinionating what it is, or what they do, or what?

[Neo]

It was used in the Second World War, especially during the build up of D-Day. American General George S. Patton was "given" command of the US 1st Army Group which was located in the region of Kent (Dover, etc). They used inflatable tanks and vehicles. The allies build installations out of plywood and canvas. As well they created a

All of this reinforeced belief of the German High Command that the invasion would come South-East England across the shortest part of the Channel, into Pas de Calais in France. All while the allies were secretly preparing a large invasion force in the South-West of England, to cross at the widest point of the channel to land in Normandy.

This 'psyops' kep the Germans guessing, even after the invasion, they believed that the invasion of Normandy was a distraction, hence they withheld reinforcements, which might have driven back the allies.

The entire psyop was called Operation: Fortitude. It was a success and General Patton was sent to Europe immedialty after the invasion to command the US 3rd Army.

PsyOps, aren't exactly a new tool in war.. but still very useful... although embedded journalists do change that alot.

[HammerOfHope]

In the mid-1950s the CIA experimented with all manner of mind control substances that would disorient enemy soldiers, political leaders or prisoners of war. The project was called MKULTRA (http://peyote.com/jonstef/mkultra.htm).

All kinds of inhumane experiments were performed on US and foreign soldiers which led to all kinds of side effects, including the popularization of synthetic hallucination-inducing substances like LSD. gg CIA.

[Earlam]

PsyOps:
Often unpleasant, but effective.

I am pro-freaking-the-enemy-out. If they don't know what's going on, our guys don't get dead. This seems like a good thing to me.......

Experimentation: Have we prevented our guys from being killed? If yes, it's acceptable.

[F/Sgt. Steele]

heheh, this is good.

the reason why i put this up was to make people realize the power of influence. if you put enough effort into something, you could convince someone to marry their sister!

embeded journalists have changed the face of psyops for sure, but i don't belive that the media -as civilians- should be on the front line to show the folks at home the latest kill. it just adds more power to the already over-powerful media.

as to answer piper, i'm asking to give an opinon on what they do. because if you look into it, psyops isn't all that diffrent from an advertising agency.

[DaveKeane]

I think one example is the 'infamous' inflatable Hummers strapped alongside real hummers to make the invaded think that more Hummers were coming than there really were.