日本＊ピング＊ (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
Posted on 07/02/2010 9:43:38 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The Army has dropped the Vietnam-era name "psychological operations" for its branch in charge of trying to change minds behind enemy lines, acknowledging the term can sound ominous.
The Defense Department picked a more neutral moniker: "Military Information Support Operations," or MISO.
U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw said Thursday the new name, adopted last month, more accurately reflects the unit's job of producing leaflets, radio broadcasts and loudspeaker messages to influence enemy soldiers and civilians.
"One of the catalysts for the transition is foreign and domestic sensitivities to the term 'psychological operations' that often lead to a misunderstanding of the mission," McGraw said.
Fort Bragg is home to the 4th Psychological Operations Group, the Army's only active duty psychological operations unit. Psychological operations soldiers are trained at the post.
Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., a retired colonel who was Director for Psychological Operations in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1986-88, says the term has always had some baggage and been difficult to explain.
"Somehow it gives a nefarious connotation, but I think that this baggage can be overcome," said Paddock, who also served three combat tours with Special Forces in Laos and Vietnam.
Psychological operations have been cast as spooky in movies and books over the years portraying the soldiers as master manipulators. The 2009 movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats," staring George Clooney, was about an army unit that trains psychic spies, based on Jon Ronson's nonfiction account of the U.S. military's hush-hush research into psychic warfare and espionage.
But the real mission is far more mundane. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, psychological operations units dropped leaflets urging Iraqis to surrender.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Ping
To the alphabet soup of military acronyms we now add the MISO.
日本＊ピング＊ (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
I’m not that old but I remember when a stupid movie I never saw (China Syndrome?) killed nuclear power in the country for a generation. Hope another movie I never saw (Men who stare at goats) doesn’t have a comparable impact.
We aren’t in Kansas anymore, especially under this pResident.
I don’t want on or off the list, but I do want soup advice.
I had a soup a few months ago in Tokyo at a roadside stand that had a creamy, oily broth that was translucent yellow/white. Have had trouble identifying it (and finding it again) but some say it is from pork bones. Any idea?
ping...
Obama admin trying to lower the profile of Psy Ops?
Capt. Elisabeth Campbell said it best.
Thanks! That’s probably it. It also led me to search for tonkotsu and find similar results. Now I need to find a place to get bones and buy a pressure cooker...
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