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.

  1. "We do not want war"
  2. "The other side is the only one responsible for the war"
  3. "The enemy has the devil's face"
  4. "We are defending a noble cause and not some particular interests"
  5. "The enemy provocates atrocities; if we goof it's never voluntarily."
  6. "The enemy uses unauthorized weapons"
  7. "We have nearly no losses, the enemy's are huge"
  8. "Artists and intellectuals support our cause"
  9. "Our cause has a holy character"
  10. "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.