History Publishing Company of Palisades, NY has agreed to publish The War of Ideas: How Psychological Operations in Iraq Made the Surge Work by LTC. Carmine Cicalese, U.S Army.
The War of Ideas is an inside look at the Psychological Operations or “PSYOP, used in Iraq by the Coalition Forces. Focusing on the Baghdad area and the ethnic fault line of the warring factions of the Sunni and Shia, the book recounts how an infusion of positive ideas based on truth and reality dispelled the turbulence of Civil War and helped to overcome the violence of the insurgency.
The senior officer in the Psychological Operations in Iraq, Col. Cicalese, presents an insider’s view of the information war that is rarely seen. Likening it to the political campaign process in the United States, “PSYOP,” the psychological operation used during the Surge in Iraq, is a unique process. The War of Ideas which examines that process is both a history of that program in Iraq and an examination of its effectiveness during the Surge. It was a program largely responsible for the transformation of a war in which the people of the United States lost their patience and the people of Iraq faith in their government to one of a grudging acceptance in the U.S. and a growing hope in Iraq.
“PSYOP is not to be confused with mind control,” said Col. Cicalese. “It is the utilization of information in a very positive way. It has to be the truth. If not, it will come back on us and we will fail. It is important that we in the military understand this and use information to our advantage.”
LTC Camine Cicalese is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and has twenty one years experience in the U.S. Army. He has served as an Army Information Officer in five deployments in support of the Global War on Terror. Since 9-11, he has educated and advised senior and junior officers how to effectively use information in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters.
The War of Ideas, 9781933909424 History Publishing Company, LLC www.historypublishingco.com will be in bookstores is June, 2009.
Contact: Don Bracken
djb@historypublishingco.com
