As for the people who stand to be on the receiving end of a Western military operation, the Iraqis are being bombarded with radio broadcasts and leaflets urging them to support Saddam's ouster. US operatives are even sending e-mails and making phone calls to Iraqi commanders.
The Americans and their allies dropped 28 million leaflets on Iraq during the 1991 war. For the sequel, 80 million already have been dropped.
Regardless of who it's aimed at, Gerwehr said propaganda is governed by the same principles of persuasion as political campaigning and marketing. And though the military is prohibited by law from using psychological warfare against the American public, any bit of information aimed at the enemy can wind up on the evening news or an Internet Web site.
During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, military officials contended that oil spills in the gulf were an attempt by Saddam to poison the important fishery. Most of the spills were proven to have been caused by the UN coalition's air war. And the professed accuracy of the Patriot anti-missile system turned out to have been overstated.
The US recently unveiled what it said was the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever, the MOAB. Declassified intelligence files have shown that spreading news about a super weapon is a propaganda standby, whether that weapon is real or not. "Historically, there are two reasons why you might want to do that," Gerwehr said. "To intimidate [the enemy] and to deceive them."
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