This old IO guy is… well, old. Or maybe I just feel that way today.  I’ve been ‘doing’ IO since the mid-90s since the phrase Information Operations was first

Lessons Learned (song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

approved. I thought it was a fascinating concept and the potential is almost unlimited. I still feel that way today.

More importantly, at least in my opinion, I have learned what Information Operations is not.

What IO is not

Information Operations is not:

• Components.  I’ve seen one IO publication stating that IO was ‘these’ 11 components. We’ve suffered with five components for most of the past decade and now the definition is all about what we do.  Finally.
• Brainwashing. This is usually the stuff for conspiracy theorists, but all too many people think it’s possible for brainwashing to happen on a large scale.
• Scare tactics. Too many people are convinced that IO is all about scaring someone enough from one direction so they’ll move in the other direction. Heck, I’m one of those guys that always volunteered for combat duty first, so fear never worked on me.
• Propaganda. Actually, using Bernay’s 1928 book, propaganda isn’t too far off and often what we put out is labeled as propaganda.  The biggest problem with propaganda, according to the folks at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is that the audience recognizes it and dismisses it.
• Magical.  Some think the ‘government’ has some magical elixir which we somehow sprinkle something into people’s drinks and it makes them susceptible to some sort of a hypnotic suggestion. If that were the case I would have had a lot of fun on more dates…  just kidding.

What I need your help with

Therefore I am asking you IO professionals to email me ‘Lessons Learned”. Please include an above the line part, a line, and a below the line part.  Anything above the line I can use in a blog and share.  Anything below the line is private, just for you and me.  Email it to Joel dot k dot hard at gmail dot com.

I’d especially love hearing from you folks who are downrange or just returned.  I’d especially love to hear from you folks in Afghanistan or who just returned.

Your lessons learned can run the gamut from short to long.  No, I’m not going to publish a 30 page paper but I’d like to see a job description, where you work, your name (as private as you’d like, I won’t share if you don’t want me to).

I’d like you to include a short synopsis of things that worked and things that didn’t.   For instance, a good friend tried to use ridicule on an elder in an Afghan village.  That didn’t work because the source was not part of the elder’s family, so it didn’t register with the elder.  There must be hundreds of those lessons floating around and they certainly shouldn’t all be protected by classification.

This is a call to all of you – for papers.  For good ideas.  For lessons learned.  For the community.

Thanks!

Related articles

• Why Western Democracy Is Mind Control (rinf.com)
• What is Information Operations (toinformistoinfluence.com)
• Let’s Start a Dialogue on Propaganda (toinformistoinfluence.com)