oxymoron

Just finished reading The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson. Quite possibly the most disturbing book I have ever read. Not only because the American military took some fairly fluffy new-age ideas and turned them into horrible tortures and spying techniques; but also because these nutters have an awful lot of power. Which they used to try out their oddball, disturbing and cruel ideas on the unfortunate detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and countless other undisclosed locations. And they managed to make it all seem innocuous by letting the information leak out that they were "only" playing them Barney the Purple Dinosaur - well, once might not have been too bad, but after the hundredth time anyone really would go insane. So next time an American military type wanders up to you and does something completely random, consider the possibility that they may in fact be trying out "PsyOps" on you. All in all, the book is proof positive that military intelligence really is an oxymoron.