The irony of ridiculous methods is that they appear laughable, when they are actually deeply unpleasant. And they do seem to work. The Branch Davidian sect in Waco was bombarded with insipid pop music, and they burned themselves to death. More recently, it has become clear that among other offenses, the Army has been repeatedly blaring the irritating “Barney the Dinosaur” song at Iraqi P.O.W.s. One Muslim Brit of Caribbean extraction, who made the mistake of vacationing near Taliban country, was kidnapped by the U.S. military and sent to Camp X-Ray, where he reports being subjected to blaring pop music for two full months, without any explanation as to why. Given the theories adopted by the New Age adherents in army Psy Ops, this was almost certainly an attempt at subliminal brainwashing -- but exactly what the brains were supposed to think once washed remains unclear to even Ronson.

Music has its bright side, too. As Ronson writes, "one of Psy Ops' first jobs, once Baghdad had fallen, was to seize Saddam-controlled radio stations and broadcast a new message - that America was not the Great Satan. One way in which they hoped to achieve this was by playing [chanteuse Celine Dion's] 'My Heart Will Go On' over and over. How could a country that produced melodies such as this be all bad?”

Of course, it would have spoiled the joke for Ronson to spell out that Dion is not American but Canadian and that her saccharine yodeling would be – according to normal Psy Ops procedure – better suited to aural torture than positive propaganda. Ronson has a good wit; he lets these examples just sit on the page, while the reader gapes stupidly, seemingly at a loss for words.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a detailed history, and Ronson follows his trail all the way back to the thrillingly named project MK ULTRA, the CIA's LSD experiments of the '50s and '60s. He uncovers fairly conclusive evidence that one of the suicides associated with the program was actually murder. For all the fun Ronson has with his subject, he never lets one forget the real world consequences of an unchecked military. He also points out how our world-weary cynicism (“Everybody knows the CIA has killed American citizens, right?”) blunts our outrage when real evidence of misdoings arise.

As excessive militarization slowly erodes the freedom and openness our society is based upon, one of the few things standing in its way is good investigative journalism, an increasing rarity in an age of media consolidation and the obvious trade-offs one must make to be "embedded" with the right kinds of people. That the recent excesses at Abu Ghraib and Camp X-Ray are descended from the spooky science of LSD experiments and men who stare at goats is laughably absurd. But then you stop laughing.

[1]       2 Upper image: PsyOps leaflet from Afghanistan. The caption reads: "Is this the future you want for your women and children?" Lower image: Psyops crest

Jennifer Blowdryer has written three books: Modern English: A Trendy Slang Dictionary, The Laziest Secretary In The World, an illustrated novel, and White Trash Debutante, an autobiography. Currently she writes a column for NY Press.

Email us your comments

Related:

Much Ado on 2nd Avenue Leah Koenig
Mark Kurlansky's new boogaloo
August, 2005

Heart of Pinkness Michael Kuratin
A masculinist encounters The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (with other people)
June, 2005

God's Unchanging Hand Daniel Cohen
A review of Esther Kaplan's With God on their Side
March, 2005

Whatever It Takes Aaron Hamburger
How I learned to stop worrying and write a novel about Israel
February, 2005

Hipster Antisemitism Jennifer Blowdryer & Alvin Orloff
Why it's cool to hate the Jews
January, 2005

Tarnation: The Dream of Autobiography Lauren Wilson
Jonathan Caouette's art-house smash
November, 2004

Bush the Exception Samuel Hayim Brody
Two new books on Bush, taxes, and lies
March, 2004

The Truth about the Rosenbergs Joel Stanley
Robert Meeropol's An Execution in the Family
January, 2004

Four Israeli Intelligence Directors: The Yediot Interview
A translation of the November, 2003, interview by an Israeli tabloid with four former Israeli intelligence directors.
December, 2003

My First Shabbos Jennifer Waters
August, 2003

Antifada Paratrooper Michael Kuratin
The new Israeli smash hit
May, 2003

Are we all asleep? Jay Michaelson
When life seems irresolvably absurd
November, 2002