America Is Doing High Degree Psychological War by Spilling War Plan Information

Will America attack Iraq?

After the President George W. Bush defined Iraq as one of the 3 ‘axes of devil’ countries at the President`s annual State of the Union Message to Congress, the world has been watching out for possibilities of America’s attacking Iraq for past 7 months. However, if we look at the reports of the American media, that question is a stupid question. According to the American media, the war against Iraq has been already begun.

The Washington Post reported the war plan first on May 24th that America would emasculate the Sadam Hussein’s Iraqi government in air assaults and special operations using 200 thousand soldiers. The Los Angeles Times also reported on June 23rd about the war plan that 250 thousand American soldiers would attack Iraq from Kuwait.

Those two newspapers let us know that unlike people assumed that America was in dilemma of starting the war or not, America already reached the state of making the war plan.

The definitive edition of the war plan report was the July 5th issue of the New York Times. This newspaper disclosed the detailed war plan quoting the ‘action plan of the Central Headquarter,’ “America set a plan that Army, Navy, and Air Force, total of 250 thousand soldiers, would attack from 3 sides of Iraq such as south, north, and west.” According to the paper, the Central Headquarter set a plan that it would send marines and infantry units to Iraq from Kuwait, and at the same time, hundreds of fighter would take off of air bases in 8 countries including Turkey and Qatar and scorch the Iraqi airports, railroads, and the fiber-optic cable networks. This newspaper reported again 5 days later that America was considering using Jordan as a base camp of attacking Iraq, and on the 29th of this month, the paper reported a detailed plan that America would scorch Baghdad first. The New York Times reported, three times in a month, the war plan using top secret of the US Army.

While the President Bush and the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld were saying, “We did not decide whether to start a war or not,” the American media are reporting even the possible economical losses caused by the Iraqi War.

The Secretary Rumsfeld was very angry about the media’s report and ordered a fact finding, and sent a memo to the major officials of the Department of Defense on July 12th warning, “Outflow of secret information is obstructing the government’s ability to stop the terrorists’ actions and putting lives of Americans in danger,” but that memo was reported on the Los Angeles Times two days later.

It was very unusual that the military plans not tax or social welfare plans were flew out in detail like this. It seems like an ‘anarchical’ situation that the country cannot keep secrets. However, the situation might be different by the person who flows out the secret.

The New York Times did not reveal the news source. However, it wrote on July 5th issue only that the source was ‘a person who wanted a more creative war plan.’

A former White House spokesman of the Bill Clinton Administration, Michael McCally said, “It was an intentional overflow of the government,” and “(if the war plan is known to public often by overflow), no one can say that President makes a sudden decision that is followed by massive sacrifice of the people.”

A researcher of the Hoover Research Institution, Kith Ailer interpreted, “It is a deception tactic and a part of a psychological war.” He said the government is intentionally misinforming like the Allies during the World War II, who landed on Normandy, south of France after misinforming that they went to France by directly cross the Dover Channel, and neglected the German Army.

Professor Waltz of the Columbia University said, “If many possibilities flow out, it is difficult for Sadam Hussein to predict which one of the possibilities is correct,” so “it is one of many ways to confuse the enemy.”

America needs time to start war against Iraq. It takes at least 6 months to a year to remake the JDAM, which America used up for the air assaults in Afghanistan, and send 200 thousands ground army near Iraq. During that time, America is creating the ‘sleepless in Baghdad’ by intentional misinforming and substituting the war effect.

However, a Iraq specialist of the US Diplomatic Association, Kenneth Pollak pointed out, “It is wrong to discuss about how to attack, not whether to attack or not,” and “the overflow of war plan might put soldiers lives in jeopardy in real war.”

Eun-Taek Hong euntack@donga.com