Life has a way of being neither black nor white. We
say that MISO are undertaken against a military force to support the CDR’s
mission and intent. What about MISO against a hostile nation state’s criminal
activities?
“5 extradited in plot to import North Korean meth to
US” was the lead for an article appearing in the November 20, 2013 Washington
Post. (See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/5-extradited-in-plot-to-import-north-korean-meth-to-us/2013/11/20/4a2a3840-5222-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
which is also the photo source)
While I have been to the ROK several times, I am
certainly not an expert on the drug trade there although I operate under the
assumption that not much goes on in North Korea that the government doesn’t
know about.
Assuming for the moment that the meth trade is a
State Owned Enterprise (which it may not be of course, but for the sake of
argument – bear with me), and both the US and the ROK feel it is in the
interest of their mutual national security to thwart the drug operation, then
is it appropriate for their respective militaries to engage in MISO to help achieve
that goal?
While one could argue that this is more of a
diplomatic matter and best handled by Public Diplomacy or some other army of
the Department of State, are they the best equipped to accomplish this mission?
I would argue that MISO designed to discourage all
facets of the drug operation are proper missions. The appropriate resources to
address a North Korean audience are more likely to be a part of the two
military MISO organizations. The nature of the cooperation between US MISO and
Korean C2PSYOP would be a function of current operations and based on
memorandums of agreement between the two countries Executive Branches.
Reader comments encouraged as always. For my
American readers – Happy Thanksgiving.
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