I was wondering why we don’t start broadcasting (in Arabic) that Saddem is dead, and the people should surrender…or even boldly claim the war is over, and the Iraqis are asked to surrender. Why don’t we broadcast such propoganda? I can only WAG we don’t want to contribute to the number of civilians being shot by their own people? Any other reasons?
Now, you might ask me: Jinx, why in the world should we do that? Well, maybe it’s a type of child psychology, but I thought it might drive Saddem, family, and henchmen to the surface - even for brief moments? If we play such mind games with them, they just might give away their location (or other clues) in a rebuttal? In the very least, clues to whether or not his messages are pre-taped or not might become quite evident.
The only thing that keeps us from being totally lambasted by our friends-who-are-not-our-allies is that We are The Good Guys in this, even if they don’t agree with our methods. If we start flat-out lying to us, we will look like total losers.
Plus, we’re playing this game with our cards face up: we drop tons of leaflets on them, saying, “If you do not leave your weapon systems, you will die.” We want them to trust us when we tell them things like that, because it’s important. It’ll save lives. If we start lying in stupidly obvious ways, people are going to die who wouldn’t otherwise.
Remember that TV show “To Tell The Truth”? We should have many claiming to be Saddam…especially with Hollywood having such great cosmetic tricks. Then, we make Iraq say “Will the real Saddam, please stand up!”
Well, it’s just a thought. Of course, mind games only work assuming there’s a mind there to play with from the start!
