A Look Back
In the wake of all the horrible pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib, Sex and Psychological Operations by Herbert A. Friedman is an interesting site that details the use of sex in psychological operations in World War II by the Soviets, Germans, Americans, Japaneses and British. There are also two small section on the Korean and Vietnam war.
In those days, PsyOps consisted mostly of leaflets dropped on enemy lines. As the article demonstrates, the leaflets and their messages varied from one front to the other but a common theme seemed to be to make the soldiers worry about what is going on with their wives and girlfriends back home while they fight on the front. The Germans had a very inventive campaign, including see-through card, parodies of Time magazine and puzzles dropped in envelopes.
I do not know if this is a coincidence or not, but the American leaflets seem to be the most graphic by far (suggestions of beastiality, lesbianism and pedophilia) including some that were partially blurred by the site's author "so as not to offend".
Can the pictures of Abu Ghraib be put in the same category as these? I think not. They are in a whole different category that crossed the boundary between psychological warfare and into war crimes.
The illustrations might not be safe for work, but nothing more than bare breasts.
[from Waxy.org's links]
In the wake of all the horrible pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib, Sex and Psychological Operations by Herbert A. Friedman is an interesting site that details the use of sex in psychological operations in World War II by the Soviets, Germans, Americans, Japaneses and British. There are also two small section on the Korean and Vietnam war.
In those days, PsyOps consisted mostly of leaflets dropped on enemy lines. As the article demonstrates, the leaflets and their messages varied from one front to the other but a common theme seemed to be to make the soldiers worry about what is going on with their wives and girlfriends back home while they fight on the front. The Germans had a very inventive campaign, including see-through card, parodies of Time magazine and puzzles dropped in envelopes.
I do not know if this is a coincidence or not, but the American leaflets seem to be the most graphic by far (suggestions of beastiality, lesbianism and pedophilia) including some that were partially blurred by the site's author "so as not to offend".
Can the pictures of Abu Ghraib be put in the same category as these? I think not. They are in a whole different category that crossed the boundary between psychological warfare and into war crimes.
The illustrations might not be safe for work, but nothing more than bare breasts.
[from Waxy.org's links]
