Discussing the challenges of perception management by antagonists: http://call.army.mil/fmso/fmsopubs/issues/manipult.htm International Conflict Controllers: Manipulators or Manipulated? Mr. Timothy L. Thomas Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
Great bloodshedding that "never happened" -- due to diplomacy and deception. War is the means, not the ends. Americans seem to confuse the two -- a Code Duello Culture. The objective is to get the enemy to do our will. "The enemy" is just an antagonistic interest, not "a country," as we have been conditioned to think. That embodies a range of choices, but perception management, even if it involves deception, should be preferred to battle. It need not be justified by the actions of an adversary, it can be a virtuous decision by itself. Other countries have known resistance to occupation. Concepts deemed treacherous (secrecy, deceit) became a cultural virtue. Our transition to a resistance culture is nothing less than the key to our long-term survival. (In WW II, our enemy held hands along railroads and we still blew them all to heck.) If the mind is the target, too many of us are occupied. ~Aimee
