In war, you deny information, spread lies and use psychological
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warfare. An expert on military information operations explains how
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Bush has mastered this technique — and used it against the American
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people.<\/p>\n
– – – – – – – – – – – –
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By Sam Gardiner<\/p>\n
Sept. 22, 2004 | On Thursday, Iraq’s interim prime minister, Iyad
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Allawi, will speak before a joint meeting of Congress, and from what
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he said in London on his way to the United States, it looks like
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Americans are going to be getting more of the strategic information
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operations that have been crucial to Bush’s policy on Iraq from the
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beginning.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Allawi said at a press conference: “Terrorists are coming
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and pouring into Iraq to try to undermine the situation in Iraq …
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And God forbid, if Iraq is broken or the will of Iraq is broken, then
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London will be a target, Washington will be a target.” In those
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sentences, Allawi employed the basic doctrine of strategic
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information operations: Influence emotions, motive and objective
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reasoning. Use repetition to create a collective memory in the target
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audience. And the recurrent message of both Allawi and the Bush
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administration is: Iraq = terrorists = 9\/11.<\/p>\n
The Army Field Manual describes information operations as the use of
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strategies such as information denial, deception and psychological
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warfare to influence decision making. The notion is as old as war
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itself. With information operations, one seeks to gain and maintain
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information superiority — control information and you control the
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battlefield. And in the information age, it has become even more
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imperative to influence adversaries.<\/p>\n
But with the Iraq war, information operations have gone seriously off
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track, moving beyond influencing adversaries on the battlefield to
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influencing the decision making of friendly nations and, even more
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important, American public opinion. In information denial, one
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attempts to deceive one’s adversary. Since the declared end of combat
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operations, the Bush administration has orchestrated a number of
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deceptions about Iraq. But who is its adversary?<\/p>\n
In August 2003, the administration’s message was that everything in
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Iraq was improving. The White House led the information effort and
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even published a paper on the successes of the first 100 days of the
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occupation. By October the message had shifted: Things were going
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well in Iraq, but the media was telling the wrong story.<\/p>\n
Then, toward the end of 2003, the message was that the whole problem
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in Iraq was “dead-enders” and “foreign fighters.” If it weren’t for
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them, the situation would be fine. Then, after Saddam Hussein was
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captured in December, the message shifted again: The coalition had
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discovered along with the former dictator documents revealing the
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insurgent network, which now would be broken. Once again, everything
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would be fine.<\/p>\n
At the approach of the hand-over to Iraq’s interim government in late
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June, the administration said the event represented the worst fears
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of the insurgents, who did not want any movement toward democracy.
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The White House warned that there would be increased violence as the
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insurgents tried to prevent the interim government from assuming its
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proper role in running the country. In fact, violence did increase
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before the transfer, but there was even more violence afterward. But
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the administration’s information about the situation in Iraq sharply
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declined.<\/p>\n
Denying information to adversaries is one way of maintaining
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information dominance. (According to the Army Field Manual, this
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dimension involves “withholding information that adversaries need for
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effective decision-making.”) In the case of Iraq, this has meant
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eliminating press releases and press briefings. Since the hand-over
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of power, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq has issued only six releases,
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including one on the new Iraqi environment minister’s visit to a
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landfill project. The most recent press release, on Aug. 12, was
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about a boxer on Iraq’s Olympics team. The last press briefing by the
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Multi-National Force in Iraq was June 25. The interim Iraqi
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government does not hold press conferences.<\/p>\n
The White House Web site also reflects the strategy of withholding
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information. It used to actively provide content on Operation Iraqi
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Freedom (or as the Web site now says, “Renewal in Iraq”), but the
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last new entry is dated Aug. 5.<\/p>\n
The effect of the White House’s control of information has been
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dramatic. The chart above shows how English-language press coverage
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of Iraq has fallen off since July. Early in July, it was typical to
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find almost 250,000 articles each day mentioning Iraq. That number
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has dropped to 150,000. The goal of denying the adversary access to
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information is being realized. But, again, who is the adversary?<\/p>\n
Before, during and immediately after the war, the White House
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orchestrated an intensive program of press briefings and releases to
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saturate media time and space, stay on message, keep ahead of the
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news cycle and manage expectations. The White House conference call
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set the daily message. The press briefings from the Central Command
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headquarters in Doha, Qatar, were designed to dominate the morning
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and afternoon press coverage, while the afternoon press briefing by
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the Pentagon was intended for the evening news.<\/p>\n
The White House is also using psychological warfare — conveying
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selected information to organizations and individuals to influence
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their emotions, motives, objective reasoning and ultimately behavior –
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– to spread its version of the war. And the administration’s message
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is obviously central to the process. From the very beginning, that
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message, delivered both directly and subtly, has been constant and
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consistent: Iraq = terrorists = 9\/11.<\/p>\n
The president tells us that we are fighting terrorists in Iraq so we
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don’t have to fight them here in the United States. But I know of no
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one with a respectable knowledge of the events in Iraq who shares
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that view. My contacts in the intelligence community say the opposite
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— that U.S. policies in fact are creating more terrorism.<\/p>\n
Still, the administration has made its case for the 9\/11 terrorism
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and Iraq connection with some sophistication. For example, on March
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25, 2003, the United States renamed the Iraqi fighters in civilian
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clothes known as the Fedayeen Saddam. Either the Office of the
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Secretary of Defense or the White House (I have been told it was
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both) directed that they now be called “terrorist death squads” —
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promoting the overarching message: Iraq = terrorists = 9\/11.<\/p>\n
Recently, the purported terrorist connection was reinforced by
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another change in terminology. When coalition forces bomb a house in
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Fallujah, the Multi-National Force press releases now announce that
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they bombed a “safe house.” But Marines don’t come to that phrase
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naturally. Marines hit enemy positions. They strike targets. The
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implication is fairly obvious. Since terrorists use “safe houses,”
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the insurgents in Fallujah must be terrorists. And some of us thus
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come to believe that we are in Iraq to fight the “global war on
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terrorism.”<\/p>\n
Appealing to the emotions aroused by 9\/11 is classic psychological
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warfare. And repetition of the terrorist argument is utterly
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consistent with the theory that one can develop collective memory in
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a population through repetition.<\/p>\n
Images are also essential in psychological warfare, so negative
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images must be defeated as quickly as possible. That’s why the images
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of the contractors killed in Fallujah were so worrisome to the
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administration. Government intelligence sources told me there was
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fear they would have an impact like the images of dead U.S. Army
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Rangers being dragged through the streets in Somalia did in 1993,
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causing rapid erosion in support for that war.<\/p>\n
Although we don’t know all the facts yet, it’s almost certain that
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the White House or the Pentagon ordered the Marine attack on Fallujah
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to fight those negative images. Five U.S. soldiers were killed on the
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same day as the private contractors when their Bradley fighting
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vehicle was destroyed. But there was almost no official reaction to
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their deaths, no pictures; their deaths did not pose an image
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problem.<\/p>\n
Now, the New York Times reports that military operations to open up
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the no-go areas in Iraq will not occur until November or December.
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The official line is that the administration wants to wait until
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Iraqi security forces are better trained.<\/p>\n
My military mind only hurts when I hear this argument. The United
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States has been trying to train the Iraqis to take over for almost
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two years now. The effort began with the training camp in Hungary
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before the war, but that program failed. The robust training program
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that began in the early stages of the occupation was declared a
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failure with the onset of the insurgents’ offensive in April. The
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administration has not been able to staff the headquarters tasked to
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direct the training. Nor is it even certain who among those being
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trained are on our side. The Marines around Fallujah joke that after
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they take a member of the Iraqi National Guard to the firing range
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for practice, the sniper who shoots at them that night shows a
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remarkable improvement in his aim.<\/p>\n
It’s clear the Americans will bear the major brunt of the attack on
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Fallujah. What could possibly be behind the administration’s decision
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to wait until November or December to launch it? There’s certainly no
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commander in the field saying, “Let’s give the bad guys another 60
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days to operate freely inside their sanctuaries before we attack.”
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Such a decision would be particularly bizarre when attacks against
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coalition forces are more frequent than ever, attacks on oil
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pipelines are on the rise, and the United States is suffering
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increased casualties.<\/p>\n
Any military officer would say that you have to take the fight to the
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enemy. So what can we conclude about this decision? There is only one
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conceivable answer — the White House is delaying military operations
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until after the Nov. 2 election for political reasons. In the
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meantime, information-denial operations must be ratcheted up to
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control the story. But that is becoming more difficult.<\/p>\n
During the early part of the war, there was more deception than truth
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in the comments and press briefings of the secretary of defense and
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the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Among the fabricated
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stories was the early surrender of the commander and the entire 51st
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Iraqi mechanized division. We were told of an uprising in Basra — it
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did not happen. We were told Iraqis had stolen U.S. uniforms to
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commit atrocities — this was not true. We were told on White House
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and State Department Web sites that the Iraqi military had formed
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units of children to attack the coalition — untrue. We were told of
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a whole range of agreements between the French and Iraq before the
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war over weapons — false. We were told Saddam had marked a red line
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around Baghdad and that when we crossed it Iraq would use chemical
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weapons — completely fabricated.<\/p>\n
We were told of an elaborate scheme by Saddam’s forces to ambush U.S.
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Marines on March 23 as they fought toward Baghdad. The president
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mentioned this incident many times. It turns out what really happened
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that day is that the Marines were repeatedly attacked by a U.S. Air
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Force A-10. It was a friendly-fire incident, not an Iraqi ruse. But
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building on the theme of Iraqi evil was more important than the
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truth.<\/p>\n
Military intelligence officials’ prewar assertion when no WMD were
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found that Iraq had moved its weapons to Syria is another example of
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information denial. But although the Iraq Survey Group report to be
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released at the end of this month will announce once and for all that
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Iraq did not have WMD, the WMD argument already served its purpose in
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garnering support for the invasion. The important message now
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remains: Iraq = terrorists = 9\/11.<\/p>\n
The fog of war has not yet lifted. But when the strategy is to hide
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the war from the American people, rather than to get them to approve
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its instigation, fabrication is more difficult to sustain.<\/p>\n
Karl von Clausewitz, the Prussian theorist of war, wrote, “War is an
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extension of politics by other means.” When I taught Clausewitz to
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students at various military war colleges, I told them that he meant
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international politics. But I may have been wrong — I fear war has
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become an extension of domestic politics, moving beyond influencing
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adversaries on the battlefield to influencing the decision making of
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friendly nations and, even more important, American public opinion.
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Why have the American people become the adversary?<\/p>\n
– – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n
About the writer
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Sam Gardiner is a retired Air Force colonel who has taught strategy
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and military operations at the National War College, Air War College
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and Naval War College. <\/p>\n