When the history books on the so-called War on Terror are written, U.S. and NATO propaganda in Afghanistan should go down in league with Tokyo Rose in stupidity and ineffectiveness.

The underlining assumption of such propaganda is: Afghans are stupid and as long as we drop packets of rice over their heads they’ll just ignore the bombs and the killing of their families and neighbors. It is simply unbelievable that the United States believes that a public relations war can be won as long as the United States drops foods...while dropping tons of bombs. It is a testament to how uncritical the U.S. media is when it went along with this propaganda line.

Then there is America’s Arabic-language al-Hurra channel. Started as an effort to counter the widely popular al-Jzaeera (which they accuse of being anti-American but it isn’t, the U.S. and Washington establishment just try to slander anyone whom criticizes American foreign policy (especially Israel) which they make to be sacrosanct). al-Hurru was beyond a flop. Nobody watches the channel, its broadcasters are infamous for their awful command of Arabic (in a region that prides itself on its language) and the channel is often oblivious to breaking news because it is headquarted in the central Middle Eastern city of . . . Fairfax, Virginia. al-Hurru airs a high-volume of recycled material, excuse me propaganda. The U.S wanted to influence popular opinion with this channel, I can safely say it has changed the opinion of no more than 2 people (Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammad Dahlan). $600 million have been wasted on this channel, think of how that money could have been spent. I mean, that could have bought a nice night out in London for 3 Saudi princes.

But al-Hurra and food packets that gently glide are just stupid. But, lately, propaganda has been getting deadly:

“A box of leaflets dropped by an RAF plane in Afghanistan landed on and killed a young girl, the Ministry of Defence said.”

Aren’t leaflets usually scattered around? What was the point of the British here? That they can just drop a box of propaganda and that the Afghans are so eager to read Western propaganda that they’ll rush to each take a sheet and another for their neighbor? Stupid and deadly.