Psy-Ops drop pro-US leaflets.

In war, especially Afghanistan, it can be hard to identify who the enemy is.

It seems that the fog of war may have gotten so thick that a US general thought his foes included members of Congress.

Michael Hastings, the Rolling Stones reporter who ended Gen. Charlie McChrystal’s role in Afghanistan, dropped another bombshell report stating that Lt. Gen. William Caldwell wanted to

secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers without their knowledge.

How was this task to be done? Quite simply, the Army has people whose job it is to just this TO ENEMIES. As noted by the US Army (bold added):

The role of Psychological Operations is to alter the behavior of foreign populations in a manner consistent with United States diplomatic, national security and foreign policy objectives.

In fact, as the Rolling Stones article notes

Federal law forbids the military from practicing psy-ops [Psychological Operations] on Americans, and each defense authorization bill comes with a “propaganda rider” that also prohibits such manipulation.

Of course there is a chance that we’re not getting the whole story. Aides to the General have argued that the psy-ops officers were acting just as staff officers. However Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman and Noah Schachtman provide evidence that this most likely is not true.

So why did a General act against a long standing law? Did Caldwell just go power hungry? Is this part of some evil scheme to mind control Washington? More likely M.S. at Democracy in America thinks

the army is pretty desperate to convince people the war in Afghanistan is going swimmingly.

What ever the reasons or justifications it looks like another mans career will end in Afghanistan.