ATROCITY PROPAGANDA
An atrocity is defined as violence that does not serve a military purpose, though more than that is typically implied. Atrocities happen in war, and good people generally dislike those who commit them. This makes them valuable material for a form of psychological warfare called atrocity propaganda. Psywar, as it is often called, is as old as war, and this is one of its favorite weapons.
Here’s how it works: bad things are done in war, and sometimes the conditions and situations found in war result in soldiers doing things they aren't supposed to do; even things they are supposed to do often are not very nice, since you can't be a nice guy and win a war. What the propagandist does is ignore or play down anything that might be called an atrocity done by his side, while drawing as much attention as possible to anything bad, or that can be made to look bad, done by the other side. This influences the simple mind as to who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.
This of course makes sense and will naturally be done anyway; even children often do it instinctively. But as a strategy of psywar it’s done deliberately, systematically, ruthlessly, and for a strategic or tactical purpose.
The purpose is to lead people to see your side as morally good and the other as bad, and to make that distinction as dramatic as possible, in order to make people like your side and want to support it, while hating your enemy so they will join you in defeating him. This applies to participants on both sides and third parties, who might have some kind of power over the participants. It can make your enemy question his commitment, and reinforce the resolve of the side you support: destroying enemy morale and preserving yours are keys to survival and victory in war. And dividing your enemy and his friends into pieces and turning them all against each other makes victory a lot easier.
A realistic assessment of the liberal press shows that it has long used this strategy against America, and in doing so it has taken the side of our enemies, giving them aid and comfort. It’s one thing to report everything that happens in an unbiased manner, but that’s not what the liberal press does. The liberal press makes America look as bad as possible, while playing down the terrible things done by our enemies. It has done it since the Vietnam War, and it does it today.

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