By Robert Greenwald and Derrick Crowe
The latest general to find himself excoriated in the pages of Rolling Stone, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, should resign immediately for using psychological operations, commonly known as "psy-ops" against U.S. lawmakers visiting Afghanistan. If he will not resign immediately, President Obama should fire him.
Caldwell is one of the most pivotal military officers in President Obama's failing escalation strategy in Afghanistan and is charged with training the Afghan National Security Forces. According to Rolling Stone, he pressured reluctant psy-ops personnel into putting their talents to use to try to manipulate lawmakers into providing more funds and troops for a war that Americans don't support.
First of all, it doesn't matter whether anything Caldwell tried succeeded in changing legislators' minds. The use of funds and resources dedicated to psychological/information operations to influence any American citizens, much less those who control the purse strings for your pet project, is illegal on its face. It doesn't matter if they used the most advanced techniques available to influence behavior or simply working on beefing up PowerPoint slides and handouts. If Caldwell directed people paid and trained out of the propaganda purse to help influence U.S. citizens, he broke the law. And breaking that law intentionally, even defiantly (his spokespeople reportedly shouted "It's not illegal if I say it's not!" when challenged.), is alone worthy of his dismissal.
Beyond the simple matter of a pivotal ISAF official breaking a very clear law even when he and his staff were made aware of their behavior's illegality, Caldwell's actions convey a dangerous and disturbing attitude towards Members of Congress and Senators. The Rolling Stone article reports that Caldwell wanted "pressure points" on lawmakers that he could "leverage" to "get inside their heads." His staff wanted to know how they could "secretly manipulate" legislators "without their knowledge." This behavior and mentality goes way beyond advocating for one's preferred projects and policies. Caldwell in his staff seem to view the civilian branch of the government as a kind of target.
The alarming disrespect and aggression in Caldwell's and his staff's reported behavior may not have provided as many sensational quotes as those given by McChrystal and his staff prior to his canning, but their posture toward civilian control of the military is far, far worse. That posture comes with a serious amount of resources that could do real harm to our democracy. According to a 2009 report by the Associated Press,
This year [2009] the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations -- almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department... [T]he Pentagon's rapidly expanding media empire... is now bigger in size, money and power than many media companies.
$547 million goes into public affairs, which reaches American audiences. And about $489 million more goes into what is known as psychological operations, which targets foreign audiences.
Just for comparison, petroleum giant BP spent "only" $7.3 million on lobbying Congress last year. If behavior like Caldwell's isn't forcefully curtailed, the Pentagon could potentially spend well over 135 times that amount with a State-Department-sized specialized workforce to promote this ugly war that Americans don't support, and our voices will be washed out of the democratic process.
Brave New Foundation's Rethink Afghanistan campaign is calling for Caldwell's immediate resignation (or firing, if he will not resign). If we can get 10,000 signatures, we'll deliver the petition to Congress and the White House next week. With Congress out of session this week, it's up to us to speak out on this before it gets swept off the front pages and under the rug. Please help us stand up to the misuse of our dollars on propaganda and sign our petition today.
If you're fed up with this war that's not making us safer and that's not worth the cost, join Rethink Afghanistan on Facebook and Twitter, and Meetup with others who want this war to end.
I usually like reading this blog. I may disagree often, but I do like reading it. But this is absurd. The entirety of the facts are not known to anyone and you think people should be fired? Because Michael Hastings writes an editorialized and under-sourced article in Rolling Stones against a war you don't approve of? You all are better than that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how the ISAF investigation is going to turn out. I would guess there were some things done that are uncomfortable to most of us, that a number of people lied or extrapolated the truth in that article, and that possibly a law was broken. But you're advocating subverting due process on no substantial evidence. And are willing to waste the minimal and valuable time of White House and Congressional staffers on this.
Oh, and please do some research into the information operations, psychological operations (now MISO in the Army), and public relations functions in the military. They are all different. MISO is a Special Operations function, public affairs isn't. The PA budget has nothing to do with this at all, especially with the very narrow authorization for public affairs (especially in recruiting and advertising) expenditures. While the size of that PR mechanism in DoD may bother you (seems a bit large to me for that matter), that issue is entirely different from what happened in NTM-A.
You're mad, I get it. But you (and I) are not in full possession of the facts. I read this blog for it's analysis and insights. This posting is entirely devoid of either.
Hi Jason,
ReplyDeleteOne of the things we do at Newshoggers is promise our contributors zero editorial interference. They get to write what they want to, the way they want to. However, I understand your misgivings about due process - my own post called for an investigation rather than summary firing, although I do think Petraeus's staff are the wrong foxes to be investigating who might have raided the henhouse.
Regards, Steve