Psychological warfare

[exostrike]

In my thoughts on waging a war between Earth and Pandora, I've turned my thoughts to psychological warfare warfare and propaganda.

It would be relatively easy to attack the Avatar team this way, just get their family and friends in front of a camera and get them to make a recording saying that what they did was wrong (or atleast we need unobtanium) and that they are missed back home. The idea is to either get them to give up without a fight or atleast be more willing to fold during negotiations This will be especially hard on the Avatar drivers that transfered into thier avatar, since they can't go home.

Jake Sully could also be attacked in the same way, while the opening didn't reveal if their parents are alive, you could use Jakes old squad mates instead, from when he was in the marines. Get them to repeat the same thing again. The secret to this is to be subtle, not so in your face that they turn off without watching it.

Using psychological warfare against the Na'vi is more difficult as you lack the mental tools to get into their mind. Probadly your best method of attack would be to try and undermine their respect for Jake Sully. This is suprisingly easy, just dig out the old recordings of Jake's marine squad and link them throught camera work with the actions of SpecOps. While this probadly won't make the Na'vi reject Jake, it might sow the seeds of doubt in their minds. Could Jake do the things that SpecOps did to us?

A wider attack on the Na'vi should try and either to get them to give up or try and appeal to their compassion so that they come to an agreement with us. The first option is simple, create a video tape of mankinds most destructive weapons, its most brutal wars, and its sacrifice to try and show the Na'vi that we will not give up unobtainium and that we can do even worse to them than what RDA did. This of course runs the massive risk of backfiring and making the Na'vi believe that we are beyond redemption and must be fought to the end.

The compassion option is again a video tape of the best parts of humanity, arts, music, literature, film and such concepts as love, charity and conservation of the environment. But as we are trying to connect with the Na'vi, we will also cut up hundred year old copies of National Geographic and pretend it shows the world of 2154. Sure if Jake or any of the Avatars see it they'll know its a lie, but it still shows to the Na'vi that we where once like them.

[Foxhound]

I agree that this would be a viable tactic.
Also Sully's line to Selfrige. "Trust me you don't want that kind of blood on your hands." That implies Sully has done something pretty bad while he was in the service. If the Na-vi see there hero gunning down civilians it would probably hurt his populatitry. The Trick would be convincing the Na-vi that it is Sully in the video since not many knew what he really looked like.

"you could use Jakes old squad mates instead"

1UP this idea by Sending some of his old squad mates. The RDA would need to be careful that the Squad-mates don't defect but if Sully's once best friend was one of the main commanders leading an assault it may make Sully mess up.
Another idea to hurt Sully. Flags. American Flags. Have the soldiers paint their national flags on their vehicles and around base. Its one thing to fight Mercs that you can justify with saying they are hired guns and not think that they were former soldiers. Its another when you are faced with the fact that the people you are fighting are Marines and keep reminding you of that fact that you are shooting at your "Brothers in arms".
Against the Na-vi.

leaflets showing pictures of earth in good ways. (Maybe civilizations that are similar to Na-vi like the Native Americans.)
Propaganda that Unobtainuim is needed to restore earth and make it beautiful again.
Propaganda that the "Evil overlords." Of the RDA have been removed and have been punished. (Even if they haven't.)
Dropping loud speakers and playing ungodly screeching noises near there homes 24/7 until they leave. (They have the power to send men to another planet so a bowling ball sized speaker that is screeching so loudly you can't get near enough to hurt it should not be hard.)
Playing a certain song by Richard Wagner during battles........
Drive away animals the Na-vi hunt. When they start staving due to lack of food send aid and offer to teach them how to farm.
Get Avatars and dress them up like rival factions and use them to start tribal wars. (I.E an Avatar dressed like a planes clan Na-vi murdering Na-vi from Sully's tribe.
Poison the Na-vi sacred sites and new Home tree.
Attach sirens to choppers so when they come in for an attack run they sound like dive bombers.
Use explosives that make huge fireballs.

[ScottWashburn]

Well, first you have to keep in mind that anything that the RDA tries to use will take 8-10 years to even get back to Pandora. The humans at Hell's Gate would have pretty much adjusted to the idea of being permanently cut off from any loved ones back on Earth. And the Na'vi would have gone back to their own lives and not much care about those pesky Sky People.

Second, I would imagine that most of the people at Hell's Gate wouldn't have a lot of strong ties with Earth or they wouldn't have agreed to come in the first place. They know they've burned their bridges and anything the RDA tried at this point might well have the opposite effect to what they were hoping for.

And third, any psychological warfare aimed at the Na'vi has to overcome the rather big problem of getting it to them. They don't have TVs or radios or computers or the Internet. How, exactly would the RDA deliver its message?

[Porthos1]

First off, Psychological warfare might work on humans, but the Na’vi are so alien to the Human culture as not to even be on the same wavelength. Pictures on some machine or pamphlets would be…just pictures. It would never change their idea of reality. Trying to undermine Jake would be a waste of time as the entire Na’vi tribal system knows he is now Toruk Makto, having earned it in their eyes, and leader of a prominent clan, which he also earned in their eyes. Dropping pamphlets wouldn’t work as they do not have a written language and the only ones who could read English would be the ones that went to the RDA school, thus limiting scale. That would just be litter in their eyes. The RDA destroyed an entire village, but the Na’vi didn’t cower in the jungle. They came out and whipped RDA’s sorry @ss. They did it without deploying a significant force. Sorry, but I do not believe the Humans would be able to field a planet wide “solution” due to limited logistics to nullify this “Home field advantage.” In the time to deploy such a massive operation, the Na’vi would also have adapted and things would not be as “easy” as the RDA had it. There is currently painted big bold letters on the Hell’s Gate Tarmac easily seen from space saying, “Go back to your dying world, losers!”

[Porthos1]

PS, all the Na’vi have to do is enlist the remaining science team to send a continuous transmission on rotating frequencies back to Earth of the destruction of the Omaticaya village and let the Earth press change public opinion. That will slow any military expedition. Psychological warfare works both ways.

[tm20]

i doubt this would work. if you are willing to give up a minimum of 11 years of your life to travel to another world and not see your family & friends then you probably:
a. don't have family or friends
b. don't care about them too much
and i'm sure they aren't that easily convinced, this scare tactic would never work on Grace. she would just tell you to piss off they're grown ups, they can think for themselves. as for the Na'vi i think they would definitely lose some trust in you the moment you showed them footage or photos of you doing bad stuff from your past (whatever that maybe) but again, they can think for themselves and i think they're smart enough to stop and think about whether you would do such a thing, whether the footage or photos are real and so after a while they may forget about it or just think nothing of it (i don't think they would completely orget about it, they seem to be the type of people that will always remember the bad stuff about you)

[Tsyal Makto]

If anyone needs a good dose of psychological warfare it's the RDA on Earth. The resistance on Earth should organize underground media campaigns/sabotage RDA propaganda being fed to the people of Earth. Remember V for Vendetta? Just on a larger scale.

Maybe in this case it'd be more a case of psychological subversion than warfare...but same difference.

[Foxhound]

PS, all the Na’vi have to do is enlist the remaining science team to send a continuous transmission on rotating frequencies back to Earth of the destruction of the Omaticaya village and let the Earth press change public opinion. That will slow any military expedition. Psychological warfare works both ways.

The RDA control the communications so it will not work both ways.

They did it without deploying a significant force.

They did it WITH a significant force.
Well i guess if psychological warfare ain't gonna work then things get real simple......

[exostrike]

PS, all the Na’vi have to do is enlist the remaining science team to send a continuous transmission on rotating frequencies back to Earth of the destruction of the Omaticaya village and let the Earth press change public opinion. That will slow any military expedition. Psychological warfare works both ways.

Nobody will get the transmission, due to the distances involved any light speed transmission from Pandora would have to be picked up by specially built radio antenna (like the radio telescopes used for todays probes) placed in the outer-solar system. Since they will be controled by RDA/government, the general public (baring a leak) will never know that the messages were even sent.


Also on earthside its easy to potray Jake as manipulating the Na'vi for his own benefit. Just say that he abusing their religion (as Toruk Makto) to become a tyrant over the tribes. As for making the Na'vi evil? Just cut up helmet camera footage of the Na'vi fighting and killing people (cutting out what made they attack) to give the impression that the brutal attack was unprovoked.

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

with the actions of SpecOps......Could Jake do the things that SpecOps did to us?

i think you meant to say SecOps,as in Security Ooperations,a bunch of mercs and weekend-warrior clowns with guns and bad attitudes,nothing more than rda-paid murderers....not SpecOps,as in Special Operations,a joint group of the US Armed Forces,highly motivated professional and skilled soldiers,trained in all-weather missions around the globe. huge difference one letter makes.