Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Another Hard Day On That "Winning Hearts And Minds" Front 

...the headline says about as much as needs to be said: US soldier removed from Iraq for shooting at Quran...

Apologizing in a case like this only works if:

A) you are correct in assuming that the target audience for your apology is a sufficiently simple group that it does not understand that your heartfelt mea culpa is more a desperate attempt to keep the lid on a situation that could spin wildly out of control in a heartbeat more than it is part of a plan to make sure that your occupying force treats that audience with the sort of decency and respect that you would expect your occupying force to extend toward a region dominated by - say - Methodists...

...or...

B) you don't assume that target audience is that simple and you create a highly visible zero-tolerance policy with equally highly-visible punishment for anyone who has been identified showing this sort of stark disrespect for the religion of the occupied citizens...


All in all, not a a very good week in our efforts to "win hearts and minds"...

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com