According to this article, General Petraeus wants to tear down the wall between the military's public affairs operation, which is supposed to truthfully communicate with the US media and public, and the military's information operations, which is given leeway to use deception and propaganda to communicate with foreign populations.

I don't understand why we tolerate the use of deception in any kind of public communications whatsoever, with the US public or with the publics of other countries.

Via Lindsay Beyerstein at Majikthise

Its called warfare and there are many levels.
Almost every nation on the planet that has been involved in a conflict, has at one time or another engaged in the art of deceiving the enemy public.

They do it because it can be very effective, esp in under developed countries where the rulers only spoon feed information to thier public they deem of value. That includes state run TV and radio.

So Napster, let me get this straight. We're in Iraq as liberators, but since the people there are too stupid to understand this, we need to use propaganda to trick them into getting with the program? Seriously, is that what you're advocating?

I thought we were getting all the propaganda we needed, 24/7, isn't that what Faux News and right-wing talk radio are all about?