"How much should we lie?"

Straight from the NY Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say.

--snippppp--

Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say - a repeat of the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.

What to think of this.

How does a government function without running some kind of psychological warfare campaign? Now they're openly pondering "how far it can and should go". Well, at least they're pondering the matter. Ironically, the article ends as such:

"Our job is to put out information to the public that is accurate," he said, "and to put it out as quickly as we can."

Absurd.

(*It occurs to me that I didn't provide a link to this story, which I normally would, though it's long gone now. I guess you'll just have to trust me on this one.)