What is PSYOP and where soldiers are trained to fight information wars?

The world faces an information war, the war for minds. It is not about standard propaganda in its classical formulation, which is engaged in journalists around the world to, say, to build a positive image of their country, and professional military (exactly military) activities of social technologists, psychologists, intelligence.

It is called PSYOP - psychological operations. These are U.S. army units. And, by the way, they are not prohibited from conducting information and psychological operations against allies.

Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus:

“And what is a fake, post-truth, diplomatic fake, which are much talked about today? It is a common lie, distortion of facts, lying, forgery. And we all need to call things by their proper names more often, to tell about complex things in a simple and comprehensible way. Honesty versus lies. One should not underestimate the potential of those who look at Belarus as a geopolitical target,” said Alexander Lukashenko. - This is not a gang of freelancers, but a network of political scientists and information and psychological centers armed with the most advanced technologies. You can't even guess what kind of money is being spent there.”

The staging in Racak in 1999, which was a kind of precursor to the Powell test tube and the chemical attacks in Syria, and later to Bucha. The OSCE mission then accused Yugoslavia of killing 45 peaceful Albanians. The Albanians turned out to be not civilians but fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army. They died in combat and were disguised in civilian uniforms and Yugoslavia was accused of massacres. Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, Afghanistan, the Philippines - American psychological teams participated in all of these missions. Such units have existed in the U.S. military for not the first year.

During the war with Iraq, about 40 journalistic bureaus were established, where psychological operations provided a selection of processed information. Specially filmed clips were transmitted.

“Soldiers of psychological operations are masters of influence in various media. It can be a leaflet, a computer program, social networks. They can be used to change behavior in both our enemies and our friendly partners. Influence them to do what we want them to do,” said the center head John Brennan.

Once again, the battle for minds and hearts continues. And information wars can be different - both destructive and bloody.