Winning hearts and minds

[mrph]

Another day, another unfortunate PR incident for the US military - this time in Afghanistan. In front of an Australian news crew.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4359128.stm

"You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the ladyboys we always believed you to be."

Comments

[kiaransalyn.livejournal.com]

Personally I think that our forces are doing a superb job against these cheese-eating, running dog Eurasians. And Goldstein is the number one Lady Boy. I hate him you know.

[zarbi.livejournal.com]

This isn't good by any standards, but I think it needs to be put into perspective.

After all, we are dealing with taunting and matters of religious interpretation. Some would say that the Taleban seriously mis-interpreted Islam in far more serious ways, with their dismemberment of criminals and their terrible oppression of women.

By their very nature, armies who have been involved in conflict contain people whose attitudes and morality are distorted. This has always been the case.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

True enough. But whatever the Taleban did, it's not just the Taleban who are going to be offended by this - it's a belief that's shared by most (all?) forms of islam and mocking it won't make the US army any more popular...

Taunting that offends your allies as much as your enemies isn't a good idea.