Aside from the billions of dollars spent on military hardware like planes, submarines, aircraft carriers and state of the art missiles, militaries and armed forces of the United States of America has also relied on military psychology to further boost its war time efforts to finish battles and gather intelligence. This form of war strategy is very effective and applied to captured prisoners of war but the sad thing is that military psychological techniques and strategies are usually accompanied by torture. It is a part of the three elements needed to break down a POW's conviction; Psychology, Torture and Interrogation. Military Psychology: The Latest Developments This was highly used in the Vietnam war. Communist rebels would be subjected to psychological strategies to find out the location of their bunkers and camps. Unfortunately, the rebels had the same idea. Captured American soldiers would tell horrid tales of torture and humiliation in the hands of their interrogators who psychologically broke them down bit by bit. As weapons have been technologically developed, using laser targeting, satellite guidance and unmanned surveillance systems, military psychology also developed their methods and strategies. Each country made their armed forces stronger, including the United States Army. The United States is in one of its biggest wars right now, the "War on Terrorism, and ne of the defenses used by the American armed forces and security is military psychology. Advances in different forms have been developed and utilized to catch and prevent terrorism from happen again. The September 11 attack alone can be considered as a psychological strategy done by terrorists instilling fear and panic in the hearts of American people. These are propagandas used to weaken and divide the Americans and on a psychological plane, it has somewhat made its point. Not only did it kill thousands of Americans it has also made them think about their vulnerability. US securities have done their own homework. This includes profiling the enemy. Many psychological studies have been done on face recognition. This is a big help in surveillance and prevention of infiltration once perfected. This research drawns heavily from psychological knowledge of the military psychology track. Military psychology also developed various techniques and strategies in how to muddle a persons mind during interrogation making them confused and disoriented. The strategy includes placing bags over the heads of the interrogated. Captives are made to raise their hands and spread their legs for a long period of time. Other techniques used lately would be, noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, food deprivation and being brainwashed and mentally tortured. Another latest development in military psychology is their statistical prediction of behavior. Given many names already, the development probes through huge amounts of data on a suspected person in order to 'predict possible terrorists by following a lifetime of seemingly innocent movements through electronic paper trails. For example: academic transcripts, prescription drugs, telephone calls, driving licenses, airline tickets, mortgage payments, parking permits, banking accounts and records, emails, website visits and credit card purchases are all used to predict possible terrorists. Through this mothod, the military would can possibly prove if a person is a threat to national security. This method however is also proving to be problematic in that many feel this is an invasion of their privacy. We mustn't forget that Military psychology is an important aspect of the military. It can help end wars faster and with less deaths on both sides. more peace and tranquility may be a result as more and more technological and psychological advances are develop . Military psychology has been very controversial ever since it was first used. The United States on their own when using this strategic method. Armed forces from all over the world have seen its potential resulting in more research on how to make it more effective. Although we may never really know everything that is being done in camps, the latest developments in military psychology are surely being used to gain a foothold over the enemies. |
