Winning papers; IO Writing Competition
I hope this is a good place to dump these. I pulled them from USAIOP, CAC & Fort Leavenworth.
I've only read the winning paper at this point, but I enjoy reading ideas from the field, I hope the members do as well. These are papers that won the CAC/USAIOP Information Operations Writing Competition.
Enjoy.
1. "Muddy Boots IO: The Rise of Soldier Blogs"
2. "Merging IO and PSYOP"
3. "The Global Information Environment and Public Opinion in the 5th Dimension"
4. "The Role of Information Operations Campaigns in Shaping a Political Reality: The American Experience as an Example"
Educated Americans with attitudes towards the military
"One thing I learned here in Africa that I never knew before was the attitude of many well educated Americans toward the military. It is not only one of ignorance but active hostility. This I guess comes from the universities."
Carl,
You are in a place that as early as 84 hated us all, especially the AID and Peace Corps. The State pukes are even worse.
We were then huge (60 plus) and everywhere, our job demanded that. Ten years later (and less than 12 US Military at the embassy) someone would give my boss (then LTC Odom) a whole load of Sierra over being armed and surrounded by 800,000 killers. Hello !
Yea, the Zäirians were doing most of the reputation building and the educated Americans simply associated US with THEM. Green is afterall Green :rolleyes:
After nearly 10 years in Zäire, I realized they did not think of me as one of them, rather an evil that was at times necessary but should be kept locked up til that needed day comes.
New Subject:
Do you fly out of N'dolo ? I learned how to fly a Bell Jet Ranger there in 88. OK 62 total hours, but free and fun. Our Kingair was also there before everything else went south.
Take care, Stan
It ain't just Americans....
Quote:
Originally Posted by
carl
One thing I learned here in Africa that I never knew before was the attitude of many well educated Americans toward the military. It is not only one of ignorance but active hostility. This I guess comes from the universities.
Carl, it happens in Canada too <wry grin>. I tell my colleagues I'm interested in Iraq and they go on rants about evil American imperialists:rolleyes: . When I was mentioning to a few of my colleagues that I was writing an article for SWJ, the ones I respected were concerned about the impact it would have on my career. The ones I tended not to respect, were shocked that I would have anything to do with the "evil imperialists".
There is a fundamental misunderstanding in many Western societies - certainly Canada and the US, of just what the military does and is supposed to do. Some of that stems from ignorance, some from malice and some from totally incompatible mind sets. As an academic, my own mind set is different from that of the military <shrug>. Ignorance can be cured - even for academics :D (we just have to study history... right, Steve?). Incompatible mind sets can be changed so that there are at least points of congruence and mutual respect. Malice is another matter....
Marc