"9 Shocking Times Music Was Used As A Military Weapon" Topic

"Finally, undoubtedly the most disturbing and controversial use of music as a weapon has been in its employment as an instrument of torture. This has most famously occurred in Guantanamo Bay, Camp Cropper (Iraq) and Abu Ghraib prison (Iraq), all of which are noted for using certain musical genres and artists to force prisoners of war to provide them with information. This, of course, is in addition to more famous forms of torture such as sleep deprivation and water-boarding, selecting because they are perceived (wrongly) to be "humane" methods of torture.

The Tipton Three, three British citizens held by the US government for two years in Guantanamo, were subject some of the most carefully documented examples of sonic torture. Tied up, they were forced to sit in solitary confinement in a tiny room while music was blasted at sickeningly high volumes directly into their faces. This took place over many hours, and became a daily routine. The rooms were pitch black, save for lights being shone straight into their eyes. They couldn't leave to go to the bathroom, and the shackles were so tight that they bit into their limbs.

Music selected varied in order to aggravate the Tipton Three further. Skinny Puppy, Eminem, Queen, Christina Aguilera, Dr Dre, The Bee Gees, Meat Loaf, David Gray, Dope, Marilyn Manson, a wealth of metal songs, and various annoying theme tunes were all cranked up and fired at the prisoners. Even F*ck You I Won't Do What You Tell Me, Rage Against The Machine's anti-establishment rant, was used. It was so effective that the prisoners confessed to crimes that they weren't even involved with, just to make it stop. They were eventually acquitted of all charges when it was realised that their confessions were, effectively, forced – and false…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Any battle where Scots were playing the 'pipes is an example of 'music as weapon'.

Yoko Ono's voice should be banned as cruel and unusual punishment under the Geneva Convention, as should others, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, etc……

Ochoin mentioned the Scots pipes of war one example of their good use.

YouTube link

x42

Missed what is probably the most famous use of sound in history… Joshua and Jericho!

Skinny Puppy actually sent an invoice for $666,000 USD to the US Gov't at the Pentagon for using their songs and are considering a lawsuit as well.

They even named one of their last albums "Weapon" because of this.

"We definitely need a like button Sarnt Major" (in a Don Estelle voice)

(smile)

Mako 11… dude!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

US PsyOps played a tape known as "The Wandering Soul" to VC and NVA forces in Vietnam. It consisted of a traditional funeral dirge, creepy sounds and the voice of a dead soldier whose soul is forced to wander forever because his body was never properly buried.

They were told not to play this near ARVN troops for fear of demoralizing their own allies.

YouTube link

Apparently I'm supposed to feel bad because terrorists had to listen to loud music. Okay, wait….nope, don't care.

Don't shoot or I'll play the Barnie song again.

The title is very misleading.

It describes music being used as a "military weapon".

But the examples provided by the op involve music as an "instrument of torture".

Those are completely different things.

Has the modern board now become not about current military affairs but about torture? Why is this posted here?

Or are some TMPers now conflating military issues with torture issues?

Persoanlly, having had friends and relatives who served honorably in the military, I think this new direction for TMP is insulting to veterans and vile. Fighting an enemy in open battle, even an ambush, is not the same thing as torture.

And for those too thick to understand the difference: killing an enemy with a pistol in battle is using the weapon as a "weapon of war". Placing the pistol against a prisoner's head, telling him it's loaded, and pulling the trigger on an empty chamber is using the pistol as an implement of torture.

Is this the public face we want for our hobby? You can test that proposition by sending links to this thread to family and friends at work, church and home. And I challenge anyone defending this to do just that.

Has the modern board now become not about current military affairs but about torture? Why is this posted here?

Wouldn't this be just as 'on topic' as discussion of POW camps on the WWII boards, which is certainly allowed?

This is, after all, related to the War on Terror.

We discuss many aspects of warfare, not all of which are intended to be wargamed.

Well then it's official. TMP's scope is officially no longer just minaiture wargames but all issues related to military affairs, including torture (and since torture includes topics such as prisoner rape and sodomy as happened at Abu Ghraib that really gives me the oogies!) 😨

Time to take a shower. ☺

Hey Visceral Impact Studios. Thank you for restoring my faith in humanity. I was worried that there was something serious wrong with me when so many people responded positively to torture as a good things.

Visceral Impact Studios. Thank you for restoring my faith in humanity. I was worried that there was something serious wrong with me when so many people responded positively to torture as a good thing.

@ VIS

Totally agree with your premise about not endorsing loathsome practices such as torture. Warfare has always had a psychological facet but we, supposedly civilised people, have long acknowledged there should be boundaries.

Perhaps we can change the subject to a topic better suited to a miniatures war-gaming forum and put some much needed distance between the brutal realities of torture and the benign hobby of military miniatures? While I believe that full and frank discussion is your right, I also believe that we all have a responsibility to exercise some judgement and use a little self-censorship in order to prevent the mischaracterization of the hobby as a refuge for gamers with a ghoulish fascination for torture, suffering and the modification of human behaviour by sadistic means. We are better than this folks, so let's discuss something involving lead minis on a table.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

Hey, I gave a real exame of how "music" was used as a weapon in war.

Granted it was a PsyOp campaign, but then again, music has always been used to instill fear upon the enemy, from pipes to massed drums to bugles in more modern times. It let one know that the enemy was coming and typically a lot of them!

If music is a weapon of war then Justin Beiber must be the proverbial "nuke in a suitcase".

😆

Don't be mean to Beiber. You'll make him cry.