Our Adversaries Know it, but we must keep it a Secret from Our Citizens
Perhaps there should be a word for the type of secret one keeps from the public on the pretense of national security etc., but which your adversaries already know. The only people you are trying to keep in the dark are your own public.
Current Example: The US holds all the cards. (While Iran knows it is the reverse)
Older Example: Related to propaganda you push on your own citizens, such as teaching schoolchildren to “duck and cover.”
21:48
And then they say that they still have a substantial arsenal, a military arsenal,
another contradiction of the prevailing line. And then there’s um this as well. This also recently came out in the Washington Post that Iran has
hit far more US military assets than reported satellite images show. And the these satellite images were basically
off limits to Western audiences because the US and Israel didn’t want to see the damage that Iran caused to US bases ..
QUESTIONS:
Do you have suggestions for a word that represents a secret a country keeps from their public that your adversary already knows?
Does this happen elsewhere, such as in education or employment, where students or employees think “who are we trying to ‘fool’”?
Can you think of other examples where this dynamic is present?
Are practitioners of this “secret” essentially admitting that their actions are indefensible by virtue of the fact that the adversary already knows it but is being kept from their own public?