I can’t remember first time I saw the movie Bataan, but I had to be young. It made a big impression on me. Even more, it was the first time I learned something about military intelligence.
I’m not so niev as to think the movie was a complete accurate accounting of what happened during the battle, no one survived it to tell about it.
Nonetheless, in the movie, one of the characters got really angry at another for blowing taps for the first one to die. The one said he deserved it. The other said he was giving valuable info to the enemy. He had just told the Japanese that we lost one man and that somehow, somewhere, they just had a success.
I asked my older brother about it and he provided additional explanation. Even at my age, it was an eye opener.
Later, during my years in the Marines, I added my understanding all the more. Military intelligence is far more complex than Mad Magazine’s Spy vs Spy. Indeed, it only confirmed the realistic nature of the cartoon.
Yet, during Vietnam, we provided the world with a day-by-day report of the killed, the missing and the captured. Worse, we reported to the Chi-coms confirmed kill, wounded and captured. To which I am sure they thought, Thank you very much.
And now, stupidly we report Israelis losses to the world while we assume that HAMAS reports of those killed by IDF as rock solid truth.
Just how stupid can we be? Just how simple can those in charge be? The secret is you keep things secret. You don’t give the advisories that information which will be helpful to them, even in the least.