Propaganda professionals at the employ of the military. It would be naive to assume they don’t practice similar propaganda here. I’m amazed at how open they are about lying and intentionally manipulating a populace to fulfill their war aims.
Village Voice: Forked-Tongue Warriors:
Headquartered at the 4th Psychological Operations Group in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the psy-op artists typically rely on cartoon animations to get their messages across. But it’s psy-op history itself that belongs in a comic strip: Its collection of harebrained schemes is sometimes almost too colorful to believe, though all of the following tales have been reported on from time to time. One such plan initially investigated by the air force before Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait entailed the projection of a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad and instructing Iraqi civilians to overthrow Saddam. The idea was promptly dropped after scientists informed the Pentagon that it would require a mirror that was a square mile in area, not to mention the added problem that no one knows what Allah looks like. Furthermore, since divine portrayals of any kind are strictly forbidden in Islam, the hologram would surely have gotten a reaction, but probably not exactly the one intended.
Psy-ops against civilian populations is unacceptable. The intentional use of propaganda is a slippery slope. It just it makes it easier to deceive in all circumstances.