Armed Forces Send Out Pro-US Messages

The U.S. armed forces are waging a propaganda war in Afghanistan with leaflets, radio broadcasts, and food according to an AP story. "The effort involves information soldiers from the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, a division of the U.S. Air Force's Special Operations Command. The psy-ops soldiers have planes to scatter leaflets, mobile print shops that can be dropped by parachute and loudspeaker systems to blare messages. The soldiers use local languages to reach people on the ground. Their motto: 'Persuade, Change and Influence.'" The air-dropped food packets, which are filled with peanut butter, strawberry jam, crackers and beans with tomato sauce, "have a picture of a person eating from the pouch, a stencil of Old Glory and the greeting: 'This food is a gift from the United States of America.'The greeting is in English since the Defense Department stockpiles the pouches for humanitarian relief anywhere in the world."