Every war is started by a lie!!
- The story of babies torn from incubators by Iraqi soldiers during the first Gulf War is the latest demonstration of a principle long understood by propagandists, that a lie repeated many times ends up being accepted as truth.
The blurring of boundaries between truth and myth is certainly not started with the Bush administration. The misinformation was part of the war at least since the days of Alexander the Great, who disseminava large shells along the path of his troops in retreat, the enemy into believing that his soldiers were giants.
The trick anecdote about Alexander the Great is usually told the soldiers in the first lesson of training in psychological operations (often called “psyops”).

In 1998 the U.S. Air Force document, titled Information Operations, states that “Information Operations are applied across the range of military operations, from peacekeeping to full conflict … it is important to emphasize that the Information warfare is a formula that is implemented in all Air Force activities, from peace to war in order to enable the effective execution of all tasks … The execution of information operations in the aeronautical, space and cyberspace across all aspects of the conflict “(note the use of” doublespeak “[or" dual language ", in the context of the terms" peace "and" military operations ").
The document contains sections entitled Information Operations "psychological operations", "electronic warfare", "information attack", and "military deception".
In today's world, it declares: "the growing information infrastructure transcends industry, media, military, and governmental and nongovernmental entities involved. And 'characterized by a fusion of military and civilian networks and technologies ... In fact, a newsletter, a press diplomatic or military message ordering the execution of an operation, all depend on [global information infrastructure]. “
In this context, the psyops “are designed to convey selected information and clues to the leaders and foreign audiences, in order to influence their emotions, stimuli, motives, objective and ultimately the behavior,” while “military deception confuses opponents , leading them to act according to the objective of its creators. “
In practice, the document says, quoting the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, “all operations of war are based on deception”.
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