I just read a short essay by
Anne Morelli, a renown
historian from
Belgium about
wartime propaganda. (Principes élémentaires de
propagande de
guerre, editions
Labor).
The book, too short to be
boring (about 100 pages), and well written, was publish just a few days after the start of the
retaliation against the
talebans and
Bin Laden's
Al Qaeda. It is a explanation of the
ten commandments of wartime propaganda, published by
Arthur Ponsonby. Morelli takes one chapter for each
commandment, and compares the points with examples picked in recent and less recent
history principally
WW I,
WW II, and the operations in
Kosovo.
- "We do not want war"
- "The other side is the only one responsible for the war"
- "The enemy has the devil's face"
- "We are defending a noble cause and not some particular interests"
- "The enemy provocates atrocities; if we goof it's never voluntarily."
- "The enemy uses unauthorized weapons"
- "We have nearly no losses, the enemy's are huge"
- "Artists and intellectuals support our cause"
- "Our cause has a holy character"
- "Those who doubt propaganda are traitors"
Unfortunately, the book was my
baby brother's late Christmas
present, and I gave it prior to
summarize. Illustration is straightforward, and is
left as an exercise for the reader.