- Report says images of flag-draped coffins reduces support for military action
- It adds special forces and mercenary deaths don't hit public as hard
- MOD says document is to foster 'debate' and is not policy
It examines how to sway 'casualty averse' public opinion, a situation commonly known as 'body bag syndrome', and was published by the MoD's strategy formulation unit.
The document suggests that the MoD should 'reduce the profile of the repatriation ceremonies' where coffins carrying deceased soldiers are brought back to UK bases such as RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
It discusses ways to 'reduce public sensitivity' and methods of explaining that 'risks are knowingly and willingly undertaken' by armed forces personnel.
Suggestions included making greater use of the SAS and other special forces, as well as mercenaries, because it claims losses sustained by the elite soldiers and hired guns do not have the same impact on the public and press.
Comment: Now we know why back in 2002 Donald Rumsfeld and his Pentagon cronies decided to massively privatize the US military and send 200,000 mercenaries to Iraq and Afghanistan. Can't have the folks back home realising that psychopaths in power are using their sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, as cannon fodder for imperial expansion to line the pockets of elite and control normal human beings all over the world.