Truth: Effective Messaging Can Win Wars
Messaging and influence operations can win the war against our enemies
The United States is not doing a good enough job in the PR world against the likes of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, or (insert enemy here). The US has lost its way in the war of words and we need to get our strength and power back. Today’s fight against terrorism is about weapons, technology, and soldiers. This post is a renewed call for using messaging tactics and our influencing capabilities to enhance our efforts against our enemies.
As a Military Information Support Operations (MISO) Officer and a former Public Affairs Officer (PAO), I have been taught the specific steps for understanding the intent of the commander and how best to write or say something that effectively gets my message across in order to influence our adversaries. However, it seems clear now that many of the steps to impose our will (read: influence) on our enemies and their supporters have been ignored or skipped altogether. A strategy is not fought with money or technology alone; it is fought with words as well. Which, when done well can be quite effective.
MISO and PA Officers are highly skilled at using word and images to get facts and information out to people and to influence those who we are trying to affect. Time and time again however, we (psychological operations and information operations) are the most underutilized assets in the military. Why does this continue 13 years after 9/11 still?
Continuing to aim artillery, missiles, and guns (drones included) at the enemy isn’t going to win the fight ultimately. Terrorist groups remain strong and their ranks continue to grow. The enemy is still angry, still recruiting others, and still willing to fight. The enemy and terrorist groups are still recruiting large numbers of individuals into the fold. Granted, some of what they’re doing is forcing young children into their terrorist organizations to work on their behalf, but their numbers have swelled regardless. Radicalizing youths in Europe are the greatest number of individuals flocking to Syria and Irq right now.
The United States and our allies can and should be doing a much better job by now of using social media, print media, and tv communications to get our message across to others. If we would reach out and into foreign media to get our messages out, and proliferate our messages through vast media outlets in general, then we would be more effective at winning the war on terrorism.
Many leaders in charge still believe that gun power and technology can win the fight against all enemies that we encounter. Leaders worry about troop strength despite the ongoing force reductions, but they are missing other assets at their disposal. The ‘non-lethal’ effects that the military has as a capability, a force multiplier, are vastly underutilized.
Psychological operations and similar non-lethal enablers were used in World War Two, to varying degrees. Influencing operations and pointed messaging tactics were used during the Korean War, during the Vietnam War, the Gulf War to a great degree, but not as much over the last thirteen years. Those non-lethal enablers have helped to win countless battles and operations. Effective messaging includes everything from the distribution of propaganda, jamming communications and redistributing our messages, and distributing news and leaflets with information on them and much more.
Our force multipliers (read: MISO Officers, PA Officers, and the like) should focus on targeting audiences and determine their vulnerabilities and the conditions by which the enemy could be deterred. Additionally, we can work on exploiting their supporters, by using influence tactics within the military. We could put a dent in the enemies’ efforts. We have the ability to undermine them completely over time. Proper and effective messaging and influence operations can create reduced support of terrorist groups, which in turn would create reduced funding and reduced recruitment as well. By allowing ‘non-lethal’ service members and officials to synchronize their efforts of messaging we could influence the enemy to stop the fight, to stop killing innocent people, to stop all of the bloodshed.
The current status of lobbing missiles and drones on the enemy isn’t stopping the war on terrorism. The status quo isn’t slowing the enemy down either. Instead of forcing a square peg into a round hole, perhaps we can revert to something new that is old. Dust off old tactics that we’ve ultimately forgotten: namely, to utilize psychological operations, information operations, and public affairs efforts to try to influence the enemy to give up the fight. We can use the power and capabilities of civil affairs officers. Electronic jamming and communications warfare are also underutilized capabilities that can be quite effective. Use the training, the staff, and the capabilities we currently have and make them more robust. Using those resources and capabilities would enable influence and counter terrorism operations and they would create an effective multi-pronged effort against our enemies.
We need to focus on measured effects and utilize the resources we already have in the military to vastly improve our current efforts at fighting our enemies. Our military leaders should reach out to the non-lethal effects enablers in the military services to create effective programs to fight more effectively against our enemies abroad.
Something new must be done. The status quo isn’t working. It is time for a change. Influencing our enemies through military information support operations and other non-lethal effects enablers could prove to be quite effective, if we try.
