Psychological Operations

[dragos]

From the great site of Psychological Operations:

DEATH & DISFIGUREMENT AS A PSYOP THEME (WARNING: extreme mutilation photographs!)

[Dr_V]

The effectivness of psichological warfare cannot be denied, especially when there are vulnerabilitys to exployt as a long campaigns in distant areas, conflicts within the command structures, very bloody battles, poorly educated soldiers, etc.

The fear of mutilation is very strong in any human, it's a natural protective basic emotion. The social and cultural education enhances this fear, frequently beyond the fear of death. Our primal instincts urge us to avoid pain (of any kind), a swift death is far easyer to accept than an agonizing or ugly slow passing. It's obvious why this primal fear was (and still is - see the latest terrorist abduction/murder cases in middle East) widely exployted in warfare itelligence.

The actual impact of such propaganda is also strongly related to the speciffic socio-cultural environment of each country/army. If a well conceived horror leaflet will certainly affect a European, an Asian will be less influenced, as most Asian cultures are violent by nature and express lower empathy within the group. Actually in WWW2 many Japanaise soldiers were convinced that a painfull death will ensure them a better afterlife...

The article you've posed the link for is certainly very interesting, as all history is. But I as a doctor don't think that the images are especially brutal or extreme, I've seen much worst at the IML (legal medicine laborarthory). Some are even hardly scarefull, the only one really impressive is the "amputated face" (1st picture). But as it's obviousely a hoax (no man could survive such an operation) it looses a grate deal of impact. I believe that a less extensive (but more believable) mutilation would be much more impressive.

But few soldiers posessed the knowledge to dismiss such a hoax and in the terrible conditions they faced on the front they were very susceptible to dark sugestions. As ugly as it is, this form of psi warfare still is a powerfull weapon on the batlefield and we won't see the last of it very soon!