OPSEC, Public Affairs, Same Thing Right?

Headline: "Disclosures of Battle Plan by Pentagon Startle Many."
The Obama administration has been eager to show momentum against the Islamic State after a conference last week dramatized the hurdles to countering the terrorist group’s propaganda. But the Pentagon may have gone too far in sharing its military planning.
Let me guess what happened.

UPDATE: The Washington Post asked Central Command why they went public with a detailed war plan, and are being told by an unnamed "senior" official -- military officials have ranks, guys -- that it's an intentional information operation designed to get ISIS to flee.

I imagine this senior official is covering some administration butts with this story, but if it's a true story then (a) you just blew it by telling them that's what you're hoping to accomplish, and (b) it didn't work in Second Fallujah, when we were facing many of the same people and they were facing American Marines and Cavalry and not Iraqi Army units as their primary opposition. It's the Iraqi Army that has the tradition of fleeing or surrendering at the first sign of the stars and stripes, not the Islamic State.

5 comments:

E Hines said...

Nah, it's all good. Since Gentlemen do not read each other's mail, it's entirely appropriate to put our own mail on postcards, or in unsealed envelopes, or in the newspaper, or....

Eric Hines

Anonymous said...

They tried this with Saddam Hussein, and it did not work. At the time, I was afraid that it would, and that Saddam Hussein would pretend to soften, leaving us with this huge force on his border, bored.

Valerie

Anonymous said...

Valerie - afraid because the bored infantryman is one of the most devious, potentially destructive forces on the planet? ;)

LittleRed1

MikeD said...

"A sailor not otherwise occupied is certainly planning mutiny."

Grim said...

Could be your "senior source" is a Petty Officer!