Hearts and Minds, or else

[Minstrel Boy]

An interesting report here on American "psy-ops" against perceived resistance:

Mohammed Al-Awasari's shack was no match for the American M-113 armored personal carrier. In a matter of minutes, the APC's powerful tracks reduced his small shop in the village of Albu Hishma to a pile of rubble. The U.S. soldiers on this "PSYOPS" (psychological operations) mission deep inside Iraq's Sunni Triangle, were laughing, some were taking pictures to show back home, while the gathered villagers stood around and looked on helplessly.

...

"I realize that today's mission in Albu Hishma doesn't exactly send the message that we are here to help them," Lt. Col. Sassaman said afterwards. "In fact, you could say that we are using some of the same tactics as Saddam's people did. But it does send the message that we will not be threatened by anyone. Keep in mind that our Battalion alone has had eleven wounded-in-action since we arrived here in June."

...

In the nearby town of Aduluwiya, Israeli-like "collective punishment" tactics were in full-effect. Last week, the Americans destroyed the palm orchard that has been in twenty-five year old Mohamed Ali Sadoun's family for fifty years because passing U.S. convoys had been attacked from its cover. "As far as I am concerned, it is Israel that destroyed my orchard," Ali Sadoun said. It took three days for the American bulldozers to uproot all of his one-thousand date palms. When Ali Sadoun asked for a few days reprieve to harvest the dates, the Americans refused.

"I hated the Americans before and I hate them more now," he said. "I will teach my children and their children to hate the Americans until the end of their lives. Even if they pave our streets in gold, we don't want them here."

http://www.guerrillanews.com/intelligence/doc3092.html

[trof]

1. "When you have them by the balls,

their hearts and minds will follow."
-Viet Nam war saying
yeah, right